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WORDS FOR THE PEOPLE: 



IN THREE PARTS. 



PART L CIVIL GOVERiMIENT. 

PART II, GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 

PART III. SOCIAL DUTIES. 



oRiaE:Nr- \^Y^i^;^ 



HARTFORD: 

PRESS OF CASE, LOCKWOOD & CO. 
1 8 6 5 . 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by 

LOUISA JOHNSON, 

In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States, in 

and for the District of Connecticut. 



3sro. 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 



*' I have lived Sir, a long time, (82 years) and the longer I live 
the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God govet-ns 
in the affairs of men. If a sparrow can not fall to the ground 
without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without 
his aid." — Franklin, in the Philadelphia Convention 

1. The period is comparatively recent 
since inquiries began to be successfully 
made into the best system of Civil Polity. 

These inquiries appear to have been 
first instituted in the seventeenth cen- 
tury, when the attention of some of the 
best minds in England was directed to 
the subject. 

2. The doctrine of the divine right of 
kings was early asserted, and endeavored 
to be sustained by argument. 

Among the more prominent of its ad- 
vocates in England was Sir Robert Fil- 



4 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

mer, the author of a treatise in which he 
endeavored to show that the right in 
question is derivable from the Sacred 
Scriptures. As a sample of the charac- 
ter of his argument, he seriously asserts 
that the text which says of Eve, " her 
desire shall be unto her husband, and he 
shall rule over her," is the original grant 
from the Almighty of all monarchical 
government. 

3. The question, as to where the su- 
preme power of a nation riglitly and 
properly rests, is one of the highest im- 
portance. It is the question first to be 
solved in any attempt to build up a true 
or logical system of government. 

Different nations have organized gov- 
ernments, or submitted to organization's, 
where this power has been differently 
placed. With some it has been based 
upon lineage ; with others, upon lineage 
and property combined ; with others the 
church has participated, or claimed pre- 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 5 

cedeiice or supremacy ; and with others 
still the republican feature has prevailed 
to a greater or less degree. In New Eng- 
land, in the establishment of the first 
local governments, this power was as- 
sumed to rest with the members or com- 
municants of churches. 

4. Among the earliest and ablest of 
the writers upon this subject which Eng- 
land has produced, are Sidney and Locke. 
Other names of note might be mentioned, 
as Milton, and Bacon, and Hume, and 
others ; but Algernon Sidney and John 
Locke, if they were not the first to sug- 
gest the consent of the people as the 
proper basis of lawful government, were 
the first systematically to investigate and 
maintain that doctrine, and hence are 
entitled to be placed at the head of the 
list of intelligent expounders of a theory 
of civil government. 

6. These writers, able as they were in 
the championship for human rights, failed, 
1* 



b CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

in one particular at least, to enunciate a 
right theory of government. 

They exposed in a masterly manner 
the fallacy of the divine right of kings, 
and the claims of lineage and property, 
and having taken from the social struct- 
ure these means of support, they pre- 
sented what they deemed to be a truer 
and a better. This they discovered to be 
in the consent of the people governed. 
The approval or consent of a majority of 
the people, or of the governed, was in 
their view the only proper basis for a 
right and lawful government. 

6. This was evidently a great improve- 
ment upon the doctrine of the divine 
right of kings. It was an important 
step in the right direction, but the the- 
ory thus advanced was defective, as sta- 
ted, in one important particular. — ^It did 
not clearly define what was meant by the 
phrase, ^Hhe people^' or ^Hhe governed^ 

7. In a question of so much import- 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 7 

ance, a question as to where the supreme 
power of a nation rightfully and prop- 
erly rests, there should be no obscurity, 
no doubt. An English commentator, 
aware of this difficulty in the theory of 
Locke, undertakes to say, that by the 
words, " the people," " Locke and his 
followers evidently meant the nation at 
large, in contradistinction to the sover- 
eign magistracy, of whatever nature that 
may be ; not that needy and desperate 
class of men who, in every country, and 
most of all under the freest constitutions 
of government, are always found opposed 
to the orderly, industrious and fortunate." 

8. This effort at elucidation leaves the 
main difficulty unsolved. It is silent in 
respect to a very large portion of the 
people, or of the population. 

The females and the children, who, 
together, comprise full three-fourths of 
tlie population in all countries, — if these 
are excluded, as they are, by the cus- 



8 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

toms of the world^ and have been with 
few exceptions for all time, good and 
substantial reasons should be given for 
their exclusion. 

9. In our own country, since its sepa- 
ration from England, we have endeav- 
ored practically to illustrate the theory 
of a government of the people, but, in 
the framing of the fundamental laws or 
constitutions of both our state and na- 
tional governments, we have found it 
necessary to prescribe limitations to the 
elective privilege, which, because of there 
being no clear light to guide our action, 
have been constantly subject to alteration 
or amendment, and are not uniform in 
the several states. 

10. In a matter of so much importance 
as the institution of civil government, an 
institution in which is bound up, to so 
great a degree, the highest and the dear- 
est interests of humanity, it is not rea- 
sonable to suppose that the Creator has 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 9 

denied to man the ability to solve the 
difficulty which exists, and if, in what 
follows, the solution has not been satis- 
factorily effected, the conviction will not 
be the less strong upon our minds, that 
an explanation is possible, consistent with 
reason and the laws of the Creator, laws 
which pervade every portion of His uni- 
verse, and which should be as clearly 
manifest in the institution of civil gov- 
ernment as in those other phenomena of 
the moral and physical world where they 
have been more clearly and certainly 
traced. 

The subject upon which we are now 
about to enter, it will be conceded, is one 
of transcendent importance, and because 
thus important, we ask the candid atten- 
tion of our readers to the evidence and 
arguments we may have occasion to ad- 
duce in relation to it. 

12. Of those institutions which have 



10 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

their origin and growth in human soci- 
ety, that which is of the greatest import- 
ance to mankind, is the institution of the 
Family. This institution is universal. It 
exists in all countries. Even in those where 
man is the least civilized, it is found in a 
rude form. It is a natural and necessary 
outgrowth from the law of man's being, 
implanted by the Creator. 

13. It is indispensable to the perpetu- 
ation of the race, — to man's nurture dur- 
ing the many helpless years of his infancy 
and childhood, — to his culture and prep- 
aration for the duties of his manhood, — 
to his highest happiness in mature age, 
and his comfort and enjoyment in the de- 
cline of life. In the family circle and 
within the narrow limits of home is cen- 
tered all that is most desirable to man in 
this life. The dear ones gathered there, 
and who are the life of his life, are more 
precious to him than all the world beside. 

14. Home. How much is expressed in 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 11 

this one word. No other word brings to 
the mind so many delightful memories. 
The strong and sweet attachments of 
home never leave us. They cling to us 
in youth and in age, in prosperity and 
adversity, at all times and in all climes. 
Man in his dreams of a future world, can 
only find happiness there in the society 
of the loved ones of his household. There 
is no paradise for him, divested of the 
fond embraces, the smiles, and the tears 
even, of those who have made his home 
here redolent with happiness. 

15. A man who has no home has no 
country, and to be destitute of both is 
the greatest calamity that can befall him. 
His home is as essential to him, as the 
soil to the tree which it nourishes. From 
twenty-five to thirty years is the average 
of human existence. As often as this 
period is repeated, a new generation 
makes its appearance to take the place 
of the old. By far the larger portion of 



12 CIVIL GOVERNMENTe 

this period is spent, in civilized commu- 
nities, under the parental roof and guid- 
ance, in preparation for life's duties. 

16. It is from their homes that men 
derive most of the moral sustenance 
which invigorates and keeps pure the 
current of human life. The family in" 
stitution is the great nursery of virtue. 
If moral purity is to be found any where, 
it is within the sacred precincts of the 
family. It springs spontaneously and 
naturally from the family hearth. Ev- 
ery well-ordered home is a temple to vir- 
tue. The relation of husband and wife, 
of parent and child, of brothers and sis* 
ters, serves to create, within the charmed 
circle of home, an atmosphere whose mor- 
al purity is elsewhere unapproached. 

17. To the influence^of Christianity in 
promoting the sanctity of the family 
hearth, and giving to the nuptial bond 
that sacredness of character which dis- 
tinguishes it from all other ties, is trace- 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT, 13 

able to a very great degree the benefits 
it has conferred upon the race. 

18. The family institution is to man- 
kind what the vital organs are to the an- 
imal body. Abolish it, and man becomes 
like the beasts that perish. Take from 
the social system this source of life and 
power, and the wheels of civilization will 
be sent whirling rapidly backward to a 
state of barbarism. 

It is of all institutions, next to the 
Christian Church, from which it is insep- 
arable, the one which most concerns man- 
kind. Upon its maintenance and perfec- 
tion depends the future well-being of the 
race. All systems and schemes for man's 
improvement, which do not recognize this 
truth, are founded in error ; are devoid 
of an element essential to success. 

19. In every system of civil polity, 
therefore, the family institution should 
hold the most prominent place. All leg- 
islation should have for its principal ob- 



14 CIVIL GOYERNMENT. 

ject to protect and to improve it. It is 
the grand test and proof of the right or 
wrong of most public measures, and all 
measures which are inimical or unfriend- 
ly to it should be rejected as unworthy 
of countenance and support. By keep- 
ing this truth in view, very much that 
would otherwise be dark or obscure in 
public polity, will be made light and 
clear. 

20. Because of its paramount import- 
ance, the duty of men, in respect to it, is 
plain. No proper means or efforts should 
be spared to cherish and improve it, and 
those who have the power, who possess 
the wealth, and control the labor of a 
country, should endeavor so to shape the 
industrial pursuits of the people, as that 
it will not be injuriously interfered with. 

21. Those who have undertaken the 
responsibilities which devolve upon the 
heads of families, should receive especial 
encouragement and aid, to enable them 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 15 

properly to fulfill the duties of the relation 
they have assumed. This is a first and most 
important step to lift men and women 
from the mire and degradation of igno- 
rance and vice. The philanthropists and 
public benefactors of our land should un- 
derstand clearly this truth. It will en- 
lighten and guide them in their labors, 
and in their charities. 

22. The number and character of the 
homes of a people^ is the true^ and the 
only true^ measure of their civilization^ — 
and they should not be homes of comfort 
merely, where the bodily wants are alone 
satisfied, but homes, where the nobler 
qualities of man's nature are cultivated, 
strengthened, and cherished, — liomes 
which blossom and are fragrant with the 
refinements of life, and the heart's best 
afi'ections. 

23. Will it be asked, after what has 
been said, what it is that most concerns 
man in this life ? What it is that most 



16 CI7IL GOVERNMENT. 

demands his attention, his fostering care, 
his support ? What, when he joins with 
his fellows, to establish rules for mutual 
protection and benefit, he is most anx- 
ious to secure and to protect ? 

24. But one intelligent and true an- 
swer can be given to these inquiries, and 
that answer is, — That the family institu- 
tion is the great center about ivhich every 
true system of civil polity should be made 
to revolve ; and any system not thus cen- 
tered and founded must be unsound, — 
must contain elements of weakness and 
decay. 

25. The number of well ordered and 
happy homes being the true measure of 
the civilization of a people, the conclusion 
is unavoidable, that tht multiplication of 
their number and improvement of their 
character is the grand end and aim of civil 
government. 

26. It is indeed the especial duty of all, 
however situated, to co-operate each to the 
extent of his means and ability in the 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 17 

great work of securing to every family a 
suitable home of its own, where the mari- 
tal relations may be duly cherished, where 
children can be properly nurtured, and 
trained, and educated, and qualified, as 
far as is possible, under the family roof, 
for the proper performance of their duties 
in life. 

27. The family institution is the great 
institution of humanity. As this is per- 
fect or imperfect, so is the social and po- 
litical fabric of a community or country, 
and hence regard for its well being is 
among the first and highest duties of man. 

28. This great truth the Almighty has 
not been content to leave to the slow per- 
ception of man's reason. 

Three of the commandments of the 
Decalogue announce it in the most em- 
phatic manner, and the inspired record 
from the beginning of the Old to the end 
of the New Testament is full of instruc- 
tion and of advice in regard to it, and of 



18 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

warning and threatenings against those 
who do violence to it. 

29. Neglect of its peculiar claims and 
disregard of its sacred character has been 
the sin and the opprobrium of every peo- 
ple and of every organized community, 
from the earliest period to the present 
time, a neglect to which may be clearly 
traceable as a principal cause, the downfall 
of every nation that has risen, flourished 
for a season, and declined. 

30. In our own country, more perhaps 
than in any other known to history, its 
importance and sacredness is conceded. 
The more equal distribution of property 
and a higher standard of intelligence un- 
der our free institutions, and the more just 
reward ensured to industry, has multiplied 
among us to a greater degree than has 
been known in any other nation, the num- 
ber of well ordered and comfortable and 
happy homes; but notwithstanding all 
this, we are as a people still sadly deficient 
in the requisite knowledge and in the 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 19 

practical exemplification of our duties in 
regard to this most important institution. 

31. It follows very clearly, it is believed, 
from the above premises, that society, to 
secure what is imperatively demanded for 
its highest wellbeing, must, as far as prac- 
ticable, consistent with the rights of indi- 
viduals, direct its powers to the multipli- 
cation of the number of comfortable and 
happy homes. 

32. The conclusion is, also, irresistible, 
that this great object can only be surely 
effected by placing the civil government of 
the country under the direction and con- 
trol of those whose interests are directly 
and most deeply involved, and whose ef- 
forts will therefore be the most reliable 
and effective towards its accomplishment, 
namely, by giving that control mainly or 
wholly to the heads of families. 

33. The Creator in the relation of pa- 
rent and child, has obviously placed the 
governing power with the former, and in 



20 CIYIL GOVERNMENT. 

the relation of husband and wife, has given 
it to the husband. That this power may 
be justly and humanely exercised, he has 
implanted in the mind and heart of man 
a sense of justice, and of benevolence, a 
love of offspring, and the love of the sexes. 
These truths are so palpable that it is only 
necessary to state them to command for 
them a general assent. They are not only 
obvious to our reason and understanding, 
but they are fully confirmed, and in the 
most explicit language in the divine record. 
34. It follows from these premises that 
the male heads of families are, hy natural 
law and the revealed will of God^ the 
proper governing power in society^ and 
that the state or body politic is properly^ 
not an union of individuals^ but of a num- 
ber of families^ united and acting together 
for their mutual good. Families thus 
united require rules for the management 
of their joint affairs, and to regulate their 
relations to each other, and they require, 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 21 

also, agents to give practical effect to the 
rules thus established. In the formation 
of these rules and in the appointment of 
their agents each family is properly repre- 
sented by its governing head. 

35. To those who may be inclined to 
dissent from these views we would respect- 
fully address the following queries: 

Where can the power in question be 
more safely and properly lodged for the 
best good of all concerned? Where for- 
the true interests and welfare of the female 
portion of the population, who comprise 
full one-half of the entire population in 
all countries, and of that portion of the 
male sex who constitute one-fourth of the 
whole still under parental guidance? and 
who so competent to determine when the 
latter sliall have attained the proper age 
for leaving that guidance, and assuming 
the responsibility of self-support, and the 
ownership and control of property? 
Where among those who possess the phys- 



22 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

ical power essential to the support and 
maintenance of government, and whose 
social or domestic duties do not interfere 
with its exercise, can the franchise be more 
properly placed? and where, for the best 
good of society, can the power, which shall 
determine who, among those who are oth- 
erwise qualified, are morally or intellectu- 
ally fit or unfit to exercise the powers and 
privileges of electors, be more safely placed ? 

86. There can be but one answer to 
these questions. If the females and chil- 
dren and others named could give such a 
response to them as their best judgments 
and feelings would dictate, they would re- 
ply with one voice, the heads of families, 

87. Here, perhaps, it may be well to 
show, from authentic data, how very large 
a space in the social economy of the world 
is filled by the family interest. Govern- 
ment returns in our own country furnish 
us with the fact, that the population of 
the country, in its natural or normal con- 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 23 

dition, is composed of children or minors 
Under 21 years about 63 per cent. 

Male heads of families about 16 " 
Wives and female depend- ^ 

ents in families of adult > 21 " 

age about ) 

Male dependents in families ) q u 

of adult age say ) 

Total, . . 92 " 

38. More than nine-tenths, therefore, of 
the entire population are imder paternal 
or family rule and protection, relying al- 
most solely upon the heads of families for 
support. Of the remainder, after deduct- 
ing persons not naturalized, females, &c., 
not more than five to six per cent are qual- 
ified electors under the most liberal system 
of suffrage adopted in the free states. 
These latter have no family responsibili- 
ties, are mostly without fixed habitations, 
and have very little property interest to 
bind them to the maintenance of right 
and stable government. 



24 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

They have, however, under the so-called 
rule of universal suffrage, the same or 
equal powers politically as the same num- 
ber of heads of families. This is unjust 
and unfavorable to the best interests of 
society. An evil, proved to be such by 
experience, and of so serious a character 
as to demand attention and correction. 

89. The civil government of a country 
has a variety of functions to perform, one 
of the most prominent of which is the pro- 
tection of persons in their right to prop- 
erty. Divest men of property and their 
persons will seldom be exposed to injury. 

40. In every community it is found that 
the ownership of property is principally 
confined to the heads of families. 

They contribute most of the means for 
the support of government. They are, as 
a class, the most industrious and the most 
frugal, the most exemplary in their con- 
duct, and have the strongest interest in 
the maintenance of good government. 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 25 

They are therefore the most reliable and 
trustworthy, and are entitled, by every 
consideration of right and justice, to the 
privilege of framing and regulating the 
civil institutions of society. 

41. In many states of the Union a 
knowledge of the rudiments of education, 
so far as to be able to read and write, is 
made a condition for the exercise of the 
privilege of an elector, but this qualifica- 
tion possesses but little value as a guaranty 
for a right and stable government, com- 
pared with the responsibility which at- 
taches to a husband or a parent. 

42. The view now being taken of this 
subject places the heads of families in the 
position of a privileged class in society. 
They are in truth such, being especially 
honored and endowed with the political 
power of the nation from the source of all 
power. The inspired record is not wholly 
silent upon the subject. The command- 
ment (and it is the only one with promise) 

8 



26 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

to ''Honor thy father and thy mother tha^ 
thy days may be long in the land which 
the Lord thy God giveth thee," may be 
considered to have a peculiar significance 
in relation to this question of civil govern- 
ment. We fail to honor our parents in a 
most important particular when we neg- 
lect to support the government they have 
been instrumental in erecting or preserv- 
ing and maintaining for their and our 
benefit. 

43. If this duty is faithfully performed 
and all filial obligations duly observed, the 
days of the nation are multiplied, and the 
wellbeing of all under its protection pro- 
moted in the highest degree. The prom- 
ise, therefore, while it is obviously not that 
of a long life to a good son, is an assur- 
ance of a long national life to that people 
which shall properly cherish and sustain 
and give due honor and respect to the 
family institution. 

44. The elective franchise, as it is 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 27 

termed, both by natural and by divine 
right, (using the latter expression in the 
sense of a special manifestation of God's 
will,) and by all those considerations which 
point most strongly to the best good and 
welfare of the race, rests with the heads 
of families. Upon the latter is devolved 
the right and the duty of originating and 
maintaining the government of the coun- 
try, a duty especially delegated and con- 
fided to them, and from which thev can 
not shrink without incurring the displeas- 
ure of heaven. It is in their power by 
right, and numerically, to control the fran- 
chise, and upon no consideration should 
they part with it, or abandon its exercise. 
45. A government thus established, 
regulated and restricted, will, it is be- 
lieved, be found the most perfect possible. 
It excludes, from participation in its func- 
tions, all who are thus excluded in the 
government of the family, namely, the 
females and children or minors. It ex- 



28 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

eludes all of the male sex of mature age 
who are unfit, from moral considerations 
and other causes, to exercise power over 
others, and includes those only who are 
most deeply interested in multiplying the 
number of comfortable homes, the most 
important of human institutions. Insti- 
tutions which, it has been shown, it is 
the first object and duty of all to sustain 
and make as perfect as possible, and uni- 
versal, because within them are centered 
all that is of most worth and most highly 
prized by mankind. 

46. Let it not be said that the impor- 
tance of woman is ignored in the system 
here presented. In the government of 
the family, the wife, in the presence of 
her husband, is subordinate. In the civil 
government of the country woman takes 
no part, but she has duties to perform 
not less important than those performed 
by man. 

47. The training of the young, their 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 29 

care and nurture during that period of 
life when the mind and the heart are the 
most susceptible, and receive, most readi- 
ly, impressions made upon them for good 
or for evil, devolves mainl}^ upon woman. 
Under her fostering care the tender years 
of infancy are passed. In childhood, and 
in youth, her influence and guidance in- 
sures the right development to the pre- 
cious soul just unfolding to the light and 
the life of heaven, and her love and ten- 
der solicitude, for those dear to her, make 
her man's truest friend and his good 
angel to brighten his pathway in the pil- 
grimage of life. 

48. Upon man more especially de- 
volves the duty of all physical effort. 
To him is committed mainly, the duty of 
providing sustenance, and whatever is 
needful to satisfy the bodily wants and to 
promote the health and comfort of the 
family, and protect its feeble members 
from personal injury. 
3* 



30 CIVIL GOVERNMENT, 

49. Woman's influence in her appro- 
priate sphere, is, if there is any differ-^ 
ence, less limited ; for while it strews the 
pathway of life with light and blessings, 
it reaches into the future, stretching on- 
ward through the eternal years of God. 
The souls of men receive, in the tender 
years of childhood, their first and best 
preparation for the life to come, at the 
hands and under the affectionate teach- 
ings of gentle woman. In this view, can 
it be doubted that woman's agency in 
advancing the great interests of humanity 
is, within her proper sphere, of equal im- 
portance to that of man ? 

60. A little reflection will show that a 
government constituted as here described 
will not lack the power needful for its 
maintenance, for power a government 
must have, and that ample for all exigen- 
cies. To extend the franchise beyond 
the limit proposed, would weaken the 
political structure. Not all who are 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 31 

heads of families, even, are fit to be en- 
trusted with so great a privilege, and 
such as are not, should be excluded. 
The power of self-purification, to be exer- 
cised by the majority, belongs to all or- 
ganizations. Moral worth and intelli- 
gence should be the sole qualifications. 
Prx)perty or lineage without these do but 
serve to increase the power for mischief 
of their possessors. 

61. It may be remarked here that the 
conclusion to which we have arrived as 
to where the divine right to institute 
civil government legitimately rests gives 
to the institution of marriage an impor- 
tance and sacredness of character which 
renders it more than a merely civil con- 
tract. Man when he enters this state is 
endowed with powers by his Creator and 
he assumes responsibilities which place 
him upon a plane of existence separate 
and apart and more elevated than that 
occupied by his fellows. These responsi- 



82 CIVIL GOYERNMENT. 

bilities are of such a nature, that, to a 
mind rightly constituted, they will not 
be assumed without due reflection and 
consideration as to the fitness and ability 
of the individual properly to do and per- 
form all that the relation of husband and 
wife and parent enjoins. This new rela- 
tion, involving, as it does, the life of the 
race, and its moral and physical and in- 
tellectual wellbeing, is entitled to, and 
should receive, all the support from what- 
ever source, which will in anywise con- 
tribute to make it a greater blessing to 
humanity, and if this is more surely 
effected by uniting the sanctions of the 
church with the civil power, which proba- 
bly few will be disposed to doubt, such 
sanction should not be withheld on the 
one side or declined on the other. 

52. It is perhaps worthy of note in this 
connection that the first of the series of 
miracles designed by the Saviour to illus- 
trate his divine character was performed 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 88 

in Cana of Galilee, at a marriage to 
which himself and desciples were invited. 
His views of the peculiarly sacred char- 
acter of the institution are set forth with 
remarkable clearness in his sermon on 
the Mount. 

63. Before leaving this portion of our 
subject it may not be amiss to repeat as 
briefly as possible, the views we have en- 
deavored to present. 

That the right, the divine right, to in- 
stitute government is to be found some- 
where in society, can not, reasonably, be 
doubted. So important a* provision for 
the wellbeing of mankind, it is certainly, 
not reasonable to suppose, has been over- 
looked. He who "made a law for the 
rain," and ''gave his decree to the seas 
that the waters should not pass his com- 
mandment," who has given laws for the 
ordering of such little communities, as 
the ant and the bee, could not surely 



84 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

have overlooked the reqmrements of 
human society. 

64. Civil government is a necessity to 
mankind, and it is required, mainly, and 
almost solely, for the protection and bene- 
fit of families, for the protection of the 
family interest, which is the paramount 
interest in society. 

55. Government when thus established 
and administered by the heads of families, 
is the best government even for those 
who have no voice in its formation. It 
is the best government for the females 
and the children, and all others, who do 
not participate in its organization, or in 
its administration. 

56. Reason, natural law, and the in- 
spired record, all concur in making the 
male head of a family its proper and 
rightful governor. His will is supreme, 
or nearly so, in the household, and he is 
its only duly authorized and qualified 
representative when the family unites 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. . 35 

with others to adopt measures for mutual 
protection and benefit, measures which 
constitute the civil government by which 
their joint aflfairs and common concerns, 
and relations to each other, are after- 
wards to be regulated and controlled. 

57. Civil government is a natural out- 
growth from, or development of, the fam- 
ily institution and bears to it as close a 
relation, as that of the fruit or the flower 
to the parent stem. To organize govern- 
ment differently, is to disregard the supe- 
rior claims of the family interest, and 
defeat tlie main purpose for which gov- 
ernment is instituted. 

58. The conclusion is, therefore, not 
only, just, but unavoidable, thai ihepoiver 
or right to institute civil government^ rests 
ivith the heads of families, by divine ap- 
pointment, 

59. Political writers when they trans- 
ferred this right from the hands of kings 
to the people indiscriminately, went from 



86 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

one extreme to another equally errone- 
ous, and there the most of them have 
remained to the present time, being so 
occupied apparently with the considera- 
tion of the rights of individuals, over- 
looking their obligations, as not to per- 
ceive the superior and paramount claims 
to consideration of the family interest in 
the institution of civil government. 

60. The doctrine of the divine right of 
the people in mass, without distinction of 
s^ex or age, and such is the doctrine of 
most modern writers from John Locke 
downward, is as great a fallacy, nearly, 
as the doctrine of the divine right of 
kings. 

61. The power to originate or institute 
government, and the duty to exercise it,^ 
rests clearly and logically with the heads 
of families. Vox patriem vox Dei. This 
being conceded, most of the anomalies 
and difficulties and inconsistencies which 
have hitherto surrounded the subject of 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 37 

civil government, and puzzled and em- 
barrassed the best minds, immediately 
disappear. All those difficult questions 
which have given rise to so much contro- 
versy ; the relation of the individual to 
society ; the political rights of females ; 
the majority question as applied to chil- 
dren, and public provision for their edu- 
cation ; the right of government to com- 
pel abstinence from servile labor upon 
certain days ; the right of revolution ; 
the right to abate such nuisances as mor- 
monism and communism or socialism in 
their objectionable forms, and other ques- 
tions of a similar character receive a 
clear and satisfactory solution. 

62. The system of civil government 
thus developed becomes one of consist- 
ency and beauty. The more it is con- 
templated the more will the light be ob- 
served to flow in upon it from all direc- 
tions. As with every right or true theory 
the mind, in its contemplation, meets 
4 



38 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

only with the harmonies, which are ever 
found in the pathway of truth. 

6S. A knowledge of the true character 
of civil government is of equal import- 
ance with a knowledge of the source from 
whence it rightfully emanates. It is to 
regulate man's social relations, and pro- 
tect him from the selfishness and injus- 
tice of others, to enable him correctly to 
define and enjoy, unmolested, his right to 
property, and to proper freedom of 
thought and action, and, by combined 
effort, to promote in a higher degree his 
own improvement and the general good, 
that civil governments are instituted, and 
laws enacted. 

64. Civil governments may be said to 
have heretofore principally originated 
from the usurpation of a few, or by the 
tacit assent of the many to a government 
established by a few. Except in the case 
of our own institutions, the consent and 
co-operation of the governed has hitherto 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 39 

had very little to do in tlie organization 
of civil government. 

65. Civil government, it is apparent, 
is a necessity of man's nature. Society 
demands it as essential to his wellbeing, 
to the development of his powers, and to 
the proper and beneficial exercise of the 
faculties which his Creator has given him. \ 
It can not be dispensed with, and admits 
of no substitute. 

66. In this light it becomes, clearly, 
an institution in accordance with the 
order and will of Providence, however it 
may be established, and hence is a divine 
instilulion, 

67. It possesses more emphatically this 
divine character, if established in accord- 
ance with the great principles of justice, 
with natural law, and the revealed will 
of God. If it has for its chief corner 
stone, and foundation, the consent of the 
majority of those qualified to act, — of 
those whose especial duty it is to estab- 



40 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

lisli and sustain it. When thus estab- 
lished, it possesses a sacredness of char- 
acter, and claim upon the respect and 
obedience of man, to which other mere 
human institutions can present no claim. 

68. There is so much of human hap- 
piness involved in the maintenance, un- 
disturbed, of civil government, that its 
powers should not be questioned, or re- 
sisted, except in the most extreme and 
aggravated cases. 

When, indeed, the labor of a country, 
or of a people, has become so far classi- 
fied as to create a mutual dependence 
and reliance of the several classes upon 
each other for the means of subsistence, 
and for the comforts of life, those who 
may be instrumental in plunging such a 
country into a state of war, of intestine 
war, which is war in its most terrible 
form, are many times more criminal than 
if they committed the act in a condition 
of society less advanced. 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 41 

Peace ^ and the arts of peace ^ when those 
arts have come to be essential to human 
life^ can not be ruthlessly disturbed or de- 
stroyed without incurring guilt of the 
deepest dye, 

69. Physical resistance to the behests 
of a government can notj under its ivorst 
forms of organization^ be justified^ until it 
is clearly shown that the evils flowing 
from obedience are greatly in excess of 
those likely to be consequent on resist- 
ance, 

70. Under a government properly con- 
stituted by those who possess the divine 
right, where the power to make a peace- 
ful change remains with those who are 
its rightful primary depositaries, forcible 
resistance^ or revolution^ can not, under 
any circumstances, be justified, 

71. It is in this view that Christianity 
enjoins submission and obedience to the 
powers that be. 

" Submit yourselves to every ordinance 
4* 



42 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

of man for the Lord's sake ; whether it 
be to the king as supreme, or unto gov- 
ernors, as unto them who are sent by him 
for the punisliment of evil-doers and for 
the praise of them that do well : for so is 
the will of God." (1 Pet., 2 : 13-15.) 

" Fear God, honor the king." (1 Pet., 
2:17.) 

'' By me kings reign and princes decree 
justice." (Prov., 8 : 15.) 

" The powers that be are ordained of 
God." (Rom., 13 : 1.) 

" Whosoever therefore resisteth the 
power, resisteth the ordinance of God ; 
and they that resist shall receive to them- 
selves damnation." (Rom., 13 : 2.) 

" The Lord knoweth how * * * to 
reserve the unjust to the day of judgment 
to be punished, but chiefly them * * * 
that despise government, * * * and are 
not afraid to speak evil of dignities." (2 
Pet., 2:9, 10.) 

" Put them in mind to be subject to 
principalities and powers, to obey magis- 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 43 

trates, to be ready for every good work." 
(Paul to Titus, 3 : 1.) 

72. It is reasonable to suppose that the 
powers given to man are intended to be 
exercised. Without society his highest 
powers and best faculties have no exer- 
cise, no development. Society requires 
rules for its regulation. Civil govern- 
ment, we repeat, is a necessity to man- 
kind, and being such, is a part, and very 
important part, of the plan of Provi- 
dence. 

It is, in this view, God's handmaid. Its 
acts are manifestations of His will. It is 
the instrument and the means of His 
special providence, — the mode in which 
He chooses to make known His will in 
respect to the affairs and actions of men, 
not to be opposed or resisted, but, if 
wrong or unjust in any particular, as it 
may be, since man is the humble instru- 
ment by which it is effected, those who 
suffer must wait patiently the time when 



44 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

what is wrong or unjust in its operation 
can be rectified in a legitimate and peace- 
ful way. This is especially the duty of 
every one under a government rightly 
constituted. Under such a government^ 
revolt and rebellion have no excuse. They 
are crimes of the darkest dye^ abhorred of 
God^ angels^ and men. 

73. Thelaws of the land have a sacred- 
ness of character not understood by very 
many whose opportunities for improve- 
ment should have given them a clearer 
insight into the true nature of civil gov- 
ernment. But for this ignorance, we 
should not have witnessed in our halls of 
legislation, and elsewhere, declarations 
that its mandates are not binding upon 
those who may choose to consider them 
as being in conflict with what they deem 
to be a still higher law. 

74. The truth can not be too deeply 
impressed upon our minds, that the civil 
laWy under a just and rightly constituted 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 45 

government^is God^s lata. That its min- 
isters are His ministers. That ivhat the 
civil law ordains and directs, He ordains 
and directs ; what it forbids, He forbids, 

75. What, it may be asked, was the 
teaching of the Great Master upon the 
subject? What the meaning of those 
words of his, " Render unto Caesar the 
things that be Caesar's " ? What the full 
import of the command to "honor thy 
father and thy mother," as given in the 
decalogue, and reiterated by Him, — a 
command in which, as has been seen, is 
contained the germ of all rightly consti- 
tuted civil government ? 

76. His life was an example of submis- 
sion to the laws of the land. In no one 
instance did he place himself above them, 
did he place himself in opposition to them. 
Although condemned unjustly to a cruel 
death, he was " obedient to the law." 
He who could have called '' legions of 
angels to his rescue," suffered " the powr- 



46 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

ers that be " to take their course, and 
only manifested his own superior power, 
after the end of the law had been accom- 
plished, and his lifeless body was laid in 
the tomb. 

77. The sacrifice of Calvary, while it 
was expiatory of the sins of our race, 
teaches, in the most impressive manner, 
the duty of obedience to the regularly 
constituted authorities of the land, and 
is a rebuke to those who treat the laws 
of the land with disrespect, or indiffer- 
ence, or who pervert or abuse them, to 
effect some selfish object, or forcibly re- 
sist them. 

78. How truly awful in this light be- 
comes the crime of treason and rebellion. 
Trebly awful in the case of the present 
great revolt in our country, because, not 
perpetrated against the government of the 
country only^ hut against humanity^ and 
against God. 

79. The functions of civil government, 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 47 

simple at first, become more numerous 
and complicated as man advances in civ- 
ilization. At first its powers are mainly 
directed to the protection of the person 
and whatever is necessary to sustain life, 
but as civilization advances it has func- 
tions to perform of a character adapted 
to the changed condition of society. 

80. Vattel is of opinion that, " if men 
were always equally wise, just, and equi- 
table, the law of nature would doubtless 
be sufficient for society," — thereby imply- 
ing that, under the circumstances named, 
there would be no occasion for civil or 
written laws ; and one of our ablest po- 
litical writers makes the remark that, "if 
men were angels, no government would 
be necessary," and asks this question, — 
" What is government itself, but the 
greatest of all reflections on human na- 
ture ? " Government, says another, " is 
but the badge of man's depravity." 

81. These were evidently careless ut- 



48 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

terances, made without due reflection as 
to their truth. One glance at our statute 
books, and the records of our courts, is 
sufficient to show that our criminal laws 
occupy but a small portion of the entire 
code. If mankind were well intentioned 
morally, with their present limited capa- 
cities in other respects, they would still 
need written rules for their guidance, 
and these would multiply in proportion 
to their advance in civilization. 

82. Every portion of the universe of 
God is subject to law. From the highest 
known movement of the solar system 
around its far distant and unknown cen- 
ter, to the smallest mote that dances in 
the STinbeam, His laws, immutable, pre- 
vail. They not only pervade the mate- 
rial universe, but they control every 
manifestation of being, and institutions 
so important as that of the family, and 
of civil government, are not exempt. 

His laws are traceable, as has been 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 49 

shown, ill the latter, and so plainly, as to 
command our respect and obedience. 

83. It has become man's first and most 
sacred duty in this age, more enlightened 
than its predecessors, to see that civil gov- 
ernment is organized and established 
upon the right basis, that it may not as 
heretofore, under most of its forms, be 
an obstacle to his advancement to that 
higher state of civilization to which he 
is capable of attaining. 

84. Whatever is wrong in principle, or 
incorrect in practice, in our own system, 
(the most perfect yet adopted,) should 
be cast aside, and the true substituted 
instead. 

85. We must begin at the foundation, 
for if there is any thing materially de- 
fective in that portion of the edifice, the 
defect must be remedied or the structure 
itself will share the fate of its predeces- 
sors. 

86. We must abandon the fallacy, ad- 
6 



60 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

vanced by many writers, that "every 
man, when he enters into society, gives 
up a part of his natural liberty as the 
price of so valuable a purchase," and 
that " society has engaged to provide 
civil privileges in lieu of the natural lib- 
erties given up by individuals." 

87. If, by the increase in the number 
of men, the natural liberty or privileges 
of each is lessened, there is no giving up 
or surrender of liberty or right. A man 
can not give up what he does not possess. 
The curtailment of man's natural liberty 
by reason of the claims of others, is no 
infringement of his rights, and in sub- 
mitting thereto he is but performing his 
proper duty as a member of the great 
family of God. If, in being thus cur- 
tailed of liberty, his happiness is pro- 
moted by a consequent improvement in 
his social relations, the one q^n not be 
considered as given or received as a con- 
sideration for the other, but is only an 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 61 

evidence of the wisdom and beneficence 
of God, in so ordering the circumstances 
in whicli man may be placed, that the 
good is sure to predominate. 

88. Man's freedom in society is, of ne- 
cessity, a restricted freedom. Under a 
just government one individual is no 
more restricted by the law than another, 
but each is master of his own conduct, 
except in those particulars in which the 
public good demands restraint, and this 
restraint is imposed alike upon all. 

89. We must abandon the fallacy also, 
that "society is essentially a mutual com- 
pact between every individual and all the 
rest of those who form the society ;" that 
it "originates in a peculiar form of con- 
tract entered into between each individ- 
ual forming it and all the other members 
of the society on the other part." 

Assumptions like these, gravely ad- 
vanced as truth by our ablest writers, 
indicate how easily the best minds go 



62 CIVIL GOYERNMENT. 

astray when the pure light of truth ceases 
to ilhimine their path. 

90. Civil government being a divine 
institution, and its enactments the com- 
mandments of God, it follows that obe- 
dience to them is not the result of any 
contract, expressed or implied, between 
the individual and the society or nation 
to which he belongs. The society or na- 
tion in organizing a government are but 
the instruments of the Almighty. Their 
work is His work. If imperfectly done, 
it is still His work. He may hold the in- 
struments responsible for not doing their 
work properly, but because imperfectly 
done does not justify disobedience or dis- 
respect to what are His mandates. 

91. We must expunge from our books 
on political science such inconsistencies 
as are manifest by the declaration in one 
place that " the laws of society are en- 
acted by God's authority," and in an- 
other place, that " there is no obligation 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 53 

to obey an unrighteous law, as we must 
obey God at all hazards." 

92. We are told that " life is bestowed 
for the purpose of happiness, and that 
happiness is man's riglit, and, having 
this right, he has also a right to employ 
the means for its attainment." Every 
man is entitled to just so much happiness 
as he can procure without infringing up- 
on the just rights of others. The road 
to true happiness lies in the direction of 
justice, in the practice of the virtues, and 
in the fulfillment of every moral and so- 
cial duty. But few lives are so miserable 
as to be marked by a predominance of 
suffering, either bodily or mental. Under 
^ the most adverse treatment of fortune or 
circumstances, the soul that submits 
humbly and trustingly, while striving for 
whatever is true and good, may have an 
inward joy and hope, more blissful than 
is permitted to those who are more fa- 
vored in their worldly condition. 
5* 



64 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

.93. Writers upon political and moral 
science, have much to say upon the sub- 
ject of man's rights, but however import- 
ant these may be, they should not have 
an undue prominence as compared with 
his obligations. The restriction of man's 
desires in society is, practically but a lim- 
itation of his liberty, not of his rights. 
It does not follow that because his natu- 
ral lil)erty is lessened that his rights are 
infringed. Rights, properly such, admit 
of no justifiable restriction. 

94. Man's right to life is only a right 
as against his fellow. Life is the gift of 
God. Man has no claim upon God for 
it, or for its continuance. He has a right 
to it only as against his fello.w, and he 
must not use the gift to the injury of his 
fellow, or himself, or his fellow rather 
than himself, and the same may be said 
of his right to liberty and the pursuit of 
happiness. It is with the relative rights 
of men in society, that society has to do, 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 66 

and which are of importance in arrang- 
ing rules for the preservation of social 
order. 

95. Rights may be distinguished into 
those which are natural and those which 
are conferred by society. The natural 
rights of man are not necessarily equal 
as assumed by most writers, but are lim- 
ited in each individual case by necessity, 
and the requirements of justice. The 
natural right of a parent to a larger por- 
tion of the means of subsistence, who 
has children and others depending upon 
him for support, as compared with the 
right of one who has no such position of 
responsibility, can not reasonably be ques- 
tioned. 

96. Distinctions of this character ex- 
tend also to the civil or political rights of 
the parties, and society should recognize 
this difference. The man who has the 
responsibility of the support of a family 
and others who are dependent upon him, 



66 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

has rights or claims surpassing those who 
have no such responsibility. There are 
no natural rights which are not made 
such by the rules of justice, by the rule 
of a just reciprocity, and all civil or po- 
litical rights should be adjusted as nearly 
as practicable in accordance with those 
rules. 

97. For reasons not necessary to be 
stated, they are not always so adjusted, 
and where this is manifest to the con- 
sciousness of an individual, who is thus 
clothed with power unduly, he will if he 
has a discretion, desist from its exercise, 
but if he should not, and resistance or 
disobedience follow, the guilt will not at- 
tach solely to the injured or resisting 
party. Man has no moral right know- 
ingly to oppress his brother, even under 
the protection of the law. The divine law 
of justice and duty to those who are chil- 
dren with us of the same Father, can not 
be violated without bringing in some 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT, 5T 

form, sooner or later, upon the offender, 
the penalty due to the violation. 

98. There is implanted in every living 
human soul an inward light for its moral 
guidance, a sense of the claims of justice. 
It is what is termed the conscience. It 
is not the faculty which, as many suppose, 
determines what is right and just, or 
what is wrong. That is the office of the 
reason and the understanding ; but when 
the latter have made the distinction, the 
conscience prompts to the adoption or 
the pursuit of the right, rather than the 
wrong. It impels to the fulfiUment of 
every moral duty — to the fulfillment of 
man's obligations to his fellow man and 
to his Creator. Like the magnet it ac- 
quires power by exercise, and leads man 
to the source of good. If allowed to lie 
dormant, or is suppressed, he sinks back 
into moral darkness, into a condition 
where his eyes are not blessed, and his 



58 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

heart never warmed, with the light and 
the love of heaven. 

99. This sense of right, and perception 
of what is just, are important qualities 
in those who are entrusted with the dis- 
charge of the functions of government, 
and the utmost care should be observed 
tliat those persons only should be select- 
ed for public trusts, who are most dis- 
tinguished for uprightness and wisdom. 

100. However perfect or unexception- 
able men thus selected may be, it is prop- 
er for those who hold the supreme power 
of the state, to prescribe written rules 
for their government ; rules which shall 
restrict them to the exercise only of such 
powers as the electors, who hold the su- 
preme power, do not intend to exercise 
themselves. 

These rules are denominated the. Conn 
stitution^ or the fundamental law^ and no 
functionary or representative must be 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 59 

permitted to transcend the limits estab- 
lished by this law. 

101. In the organization of civil gov- 
ernment reason and experience teach the 
propriety of a division of its functions 
into the le2;islative^ the executive^ and 
the jndicial^ and that these several de- 
partments be filled by men who are espe- 
cially qualified for the honest, the intelli- 
gent, and efficient performance of the 
duties of each. 

102. It is not proposed to enter mto 
all of the details of organizing a govern- 
ment, or to point out the proper manner 
of its administration ; but simply to pre- 
sent some views which are important to 
be understood and regarded, if we ex- 
pect success in our endeavors to secure 
the best form of civil government. 

103. The heads of families when as- 
sembled for the purpose of establishing 
government, meet upon a footing of 
equality, and in their action and decis- 



eO CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

ions, the majority principle receives its 
first application. It is a principle found- 
ed in justice, and in its application to 
civil government should be held sacred 
and inviolable. 

104. It is reasonable to suppose that a 
majority of the representation, which 
properly constitutes the government, will 
possess the power requisite to control the 
whole, and that such majority will estab- 
lish only such rules or laws as are for the 
best good of the wliole. Submission to 
the majority therefore^ is the only mode in 
which the government of a state can be 
properly^ peaceably^ and equitably estab* 
lished^ and maintained, 

105. A government to be rightly con- 
stituted must be clothed with the power 
requisite to ensure obedience to its com- 
mands. Power, physical power, is an 
essential element in its constitution, and 
must be adequate, if the government is 
to be permanent, for its preservation, for 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 61 

its protection from the assaults of foes, 
external and internal, and the enforce- 
ment of its behests. This power is found 
to be possessed in an ample degree by 
the heads of families. They comprise 
two-thirds of those who, under the freest 
system of suffrage yet adopted, are quali- 
fied to vote, and their power and influ- 
ence is even greater than that ratio would 
indicate. 

106. If the families under one govern- 
ment are so numerous as to render it in- 
convenient or impracticable for the heads 
of each to meet in council to transact the 
business of the government, then a sys- 
tem of representation must be resorted 
to, which shall be just and equitable. 
This will, of necessity, be the character 
of most governments ; and in their or- 
ganization and arrangement of the repre- 
sentation, no departure from the strict 
rules of justice and the sacred obligations 
of human brotherhood should be permit- 
6 



62 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

ted. The majority principle should be 
strictly adhered to. To do violence to it 
should be deemed an offence of the most 
serious character, against humanity, and 
against heaven. 

107. Civil government under such a 
system, and in its most perfect form, im- 
plies the division of the entire country, 
if it be extensive, into states, and subdi- 
visions of these latter into lesser muni- 
cipalities, each possessing appropriate 
powers, defined by constitutions and 
laws, and all deriving their just powers, 
from the only rightful source, the family 
representation. 

108. In this division and distribution 
of governmental power, as much of it as 
can be as well, or nearly as well, exer- 
cised by the lesser municipalities should 
be vested in them. The highest or su- 
preme power, should be charged only 
with the performance of those functions 
which the highest power is alone compe- 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 63 

tent to perform, and should carefully ab- 
stain from action or legislation upon sub- 
jects which may differently affect the 
industry of the country, in its several 
sections, or bear unequally, by reason of 
differences in climate, or other causes. 
In defining by constitutions the powers 
of each division, it is not difficult to fix 
a limit to those of the lesser divisions, 
upward, while it is very difficult to define 
the limit to the highest power in the op- 
posite direction, and hence, much must 
be left to the good sense, the sound judg- 
ment, and patriotism of those who occu- 
py the higher places of power. 

109. Under such an organization of 
government, the greater and lesser pow- 
ers moving each within their appropriate 
spheres, man's rights are protected, and 
his interests and welfare promoted in the 
highest possible degree, and he is, so far 
as civil government is concerned, pre- 
pared, in the best manner, to move for- 



64 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

ward and upward, to the attainment of 
the highest civilization of which his na- 
ture is capable. 

110. As government, viewed in its 
true light, has the character of a special 
Providence, it should, in its operation, 
be equally just to all under its protection. 

All partial legislation should be care- 
fully avoided. Laws should be uniform 
in their operation, general in their char- 
acter, as few in number, and as clear, 
and concise in their language, as possible. 
Changes in the law should be made with 
the greatest caution, and only after full 
deliberation. If the change is of such a 
character as to aflfect materially the in- 
dustry of a people, ample time should be 
given for their industry to adapt itself to 
the change. 

111. Time is an important element in 
the varying phenomena of nature, and is 
not the less important in the affairs of 
society. If the change from summer's 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 66 

heat to winter's cold, and the reverse, 
were sudden and unexpected, the life of 
man, if life were possible under such cir- 
cumstances, would be most miserable. 
In the order of nature this change, great 
as it is, is a source of enjoyment. Nature 
in this respect teaches an important les- 
son. A lesson which our impatient re- 
formers are slow to comprehend. Men 
of this latter character, and many such 
there are in every community, would, if 
they had the power, snatch the reins 
from the hands of the Great Ruler, so 
dissatisfied are they with the slow moving 
of the wheels of the Universe. In a 
government the supreme power of which 
is constituted in accordance with natural 
law, changes demanded by the general 
good are more certain to be made, and 
in the best manner. 

112. The advance of a people in civil- 
ization is at first slow, at times showing 
no sensible change, and often the move- 
6* 



66 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

ment is retrograde, or apparently so. 
The first great achievement in this on- 
ward movement is a written language. 
This is followed by separate and properly 
defined ownerships in land, and erection 
of dwellings ; by written laws and estab- 
lis-hment of courts of justice ; by provis- 
ions for the education of children, the 
building of roads and canals, and the use 
of vehicles for the exchange of commodi- 
ties, upon the land and upon the sea. 
The adoption of a currency to facilitate 
exchanges, the rapid transmission and 
difi'usion of intelligence, and so on step 
by step, through all the gradations to the 
highest yet reached by the most civilized 
of the nations, or which may yet be 
reached, while time shall last. 

113. These changes tend to elevate a 
people in the scale of being just in propor- 
tion as they contribute to multiply the 
number and elevate the cliaracter of the 
homes of that people. This is the only 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 67 

true standard, and, when compared with 
it, our own country, which is just begin- 
ning, as it were, the great race, has dis- 
tanced completely the most civilized of 
the nations of the present day, and the 
brightest of those which illuminate the 
history of the past. 

114. Among the more recent of the 
means adopted for multiplying the com- 
forts and contributing to the wellbeing of 
a people, and rendering their labor most 
effective, is the division or classification of 
labor. One of the greatest improvements 
in this direction is the creation of corpora- 
tions to accomplish what is beyond the ca- 
pabilities of individual effort to attain. 

115. A most powerful means of stimu- 
lating and rendering effective the industry 
of a country is the system of gathering 
up and placing in the hands of skillful 
and experienced agents the surplus wealth 
of individuals to be loaned to those who 
will put it to immediate use in some enter- 



68 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

prise of importance, or invested in public 
improvements for the general good. It is 
thus that banks of discount and for savings 
are established, and companies formed for 
manufacturing and mining and other pur- 
poses. 

116. These associations are clothed by 
the laws of the land with certain powers 
defined in their respective charters or in 
general laws enacted for the purpose, and 
they perform an important part in connec- 
tion with the industry of the country. 

They bring into active use a large amount 
of capital which, in private hands, would 
lie dormant, or be applied to less useful 
purposes, and direct it to enterprises of 
great public benefit, enterprises which, 
from the magnitude of the capital they 
require, and the degree of uncertainty as 
to their success, would not otherwise be 
attempted. 

117. That class of corporations insti- 
tuted for the purpose of affording insurance 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 69 

upon property or life are especially to be 
encouraged. When properly organized 
they mark the advance of society in the 
right direction. Through their instru- 
mentality the unfortunate are relieved, 
and more certainly than by the voluntary 
contributions of individuals. 

118. To render these institutions the 
most useful they should be established, as 
far as practicable, upon the mutual plan, 
the insured paying no more tlian is requi- 
site to meet losses and the expenses of an 
economic management. 

119. It may, it is believed, be said of 
corporations generally, that the capital 
they control is, if any thing, less liable to 
be misused, or used to the public detri- 
ment, than if held by individuals. It is 
far more difficult for a corporation to con- 
ceal its true condition than for an individ- 
ual, and the concealment of assets, so of- 
ten successfully effected by unprincipled 
defaulters, is next to impossible. 



70 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

120. Corporations are indispensable in 
the present advanced condition of society- 
They are an important step forward in the 
march of civilization. Being of necessity 
managed by agents, a high standard of 
moral worth is demanded of those who 
are selected for such trusts. 

If such institutions as now organized 
fail to perform their functions properly, 
the shareholders, and not the public, are 
often the greatest sufferers; and it is a 
subject worthy of inquiry whether our 
legislators have not overlooked this fact, 
and in the desire to furnish safeguards to 
the public have unjustifiably neglected the 
interests and claims of shareholders. 

121. The government of a country, if 
rightly constituted and administered, will 
impose such reasonable restrictions upon 
the conduct of men as will serve to prevent 
injustice and oppression in their dealings 
with each other. 

To this end the regulation of the rate 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 71 

of usance for money is one of the powers 
exercised, and justly so, by government. 

122. The position taken by some that 
compensation for the use of money or 
other property is wrong is not tenable. It 
becomes wrong when advantage is taken 
of the misfortunes and weakness of oth- 
ers ; but when the borrower is benefited, 
as he is presumed to be, and undoubtedly 
is. in the majority of cases, there is no 
good reason why the lender, after being 
compensated for trouble, and risk, and de- 
preciation, and taxes, and other injury, 
should not share in the benefit. If the 
lender while benefiting others, reaps a lib- 
eral reward, the question is not as to his 
right to do so, but the important question 
for him to solve is, how much of his lawful 
gains it is his duty to bestow in charity 
upon the needy. 

The limitation of the rate of usance by 
government, altliough often successfully 
disregarded by ingenious and unprincipled 



72 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

seekers for gain, has nevertheless a salutary 
effect in preventing extortion and oppres- 
sion. 

123. Under our present system the rate 
of usance or interest is regulated by the 
state authorities, each state establishing 
the rate within its own limits. So wide- 
spread and diversified, in soil and climate, as 
are the United States, and differing as they 
do in population and other circumstances, 
the surplus capital in each also, widely 
differs, indicating the propriety of adapting 
the rate of usance for money to the neces- 
sities of each. 

124. In regard to the mode of securing 
the return of money when due, a uniform 
system is desirable in all the states — a sys- 
tem not now enjoyed, and which can only 
be obtained through the instrumentality of 
the general government. 

125. As already stated, the teachings of 
history are conclusive as to the propriety 
of entrusting to different persons the legis- 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 73 

lative, judicial and executive functions 
of government. Tliese departments should 
be distinct and independent of each other, 
while, at the same time, tliey sliould each 
exercise upon the others a just restraining 
influence. In the organization of govern- 
ment it is not to be presumed that those 
honored and selected to administer it will 
possess all the wisdom or the virtue requi- 
site to the proper discharge of their duties. 
Hence tke necessity for the restraint re- 
ferred to, and the necessity also of a pro- 
vision for a forcible removal when a trust 
is grossly abused. 

126. The proper corrective for uncon- 
stitutional legislation is to be found, 
mainly, in the judiciary, the tribunals of 
which should be so constituted in the 
number, character, and age of their mem- 
bers, as to place them, as far as possible, 
beyond the temptations which lure men 
from the path of virtue. 

127. The executive functions, as they 
7 



74 CIVIL GOYERNMENT. 

must of necessity be confided to a supreme 
head for the time being, should be so ar- 
ranged as to give to the legislative branch 
and to the judiciary the means of correct- 
ing any tendency to use power improperly. 

128. Legislative bodies are often care- 
less, and in times of excitement do, what 
in more sober moods, they would not do. 
The evil of these excitements will be very 
greatly lessened by placing the elective 
franchise where, we have shown^it right- 
fully belongs. 

129. Beyond question the system of 
double legislative action and the executive 
veto are salutary checks upon hasty and 
inconsiderate legislation. It has become 
a common saying in which there is too 
much truth, that the world is governed 
too much. In governments of the repub- 
lican form excess of legislation is one of 
the evils especially to be guarded against. 

130. Changes even for the better should, 
in such cases, be gradual. 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 75 

Festina lente, or to make haste slowly^ 
is a wholesome maxim in affairs of gov- 
ernment, and especially is it wholesome in 
reference to those measures which may 
affect materially the industry of a people. 
It is better that the wheels of government 
stand still than to be moving in a wrong 
direction, and better to move moderately 
and cautiously, rather than rapidly, even 
if the assurance is a reasonable one that 
the direction is right. 

131. Civil government possessing, as it 
does, the character of an exponent of 
God's will in respect to the affairs and con- 
duct of men, should, as far as practicable, 
conform in its general character and man- 
ner of its operation, to those other laws of 
his by which the universe is upheld and 
governed. 

Time is an important element in all the 
operations of nature. Several decades of 
centuries are required to mature the 
stately cedar of California, and the return 



76 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

of seed-time and of the harvest must await 
the passage of the earth through its orbit 
of six hundred millions of miles. 

132. The transmission of intelligence, 
or the regulation of the means by which 
it is effected, is a proper function of gov- 
ernment. So also it is proper for the gov- 
ernment to aid, as far as aid is necessary, 
in providing the means required for the 
cheap and rapid conveyance of persons 
and commodities, and in giving to all sec- 
tions the best means of communication 
with each other and with the best markets. 

133. Works of this description should 
be accomplished, as far as practicable, 
through the instrumentality of individual 
enterprise or of corporations. It is better 
that government should give its aid to such 
in some reasonable and proper mode, than 
to undertake to build and operate them by 
its agents. Because of the amount of 
capital required they will in general be 
undertaken by corporations, in which case 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 77 

the goveniment may very properly be the 
owner of a portion of the capital stock,, 
agreeing, if necessary for the purpose of 
encouragement, to relinquish, for the ben- 
efit of the other shareholders, its portion 
of dividends for a limited period. This it 
can very properly do in consideration of 
the general benefit to the people of such 
works, and their usefulness to the govern- 
ment in time of war and upon other occa- 
sions. It is better for government to give 
its aid to works of internal improvement, 
as they are called, in tliis nianner, than to 
enter upon their construction and opera- 
tion, for it can do neither economically, 
and it should have as few duties and as 
little patronage as possible. 

134. Whatever the mode adopted, 
whether by a loan of credit or subscription 
to stock, care should be taken not to place 
upon posterity a burden which posterity 
ought not to bear. 

135. In the number, plan, and location 
7* 



78 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

of sucli works, the approval of the gov- 
ernment is important, and it may be very- 
proper, also, for the government in partic- 
ular cases to take and to own the ground 
upon which they are placed. In respect 
to tlie latter, the government must have 
power, if a reasonable arrangement can 
not be made with the owner, to take pos- 
session, or authorize others to do so, the 
value or damage to be assessed by compe- 
tent persons and first paid or tendered* to 
the owner. 

136. Individual rights should, in all 
cases, be respected, but no individual 
should be allowed to interpose insuperable 
obstacles to improvements which are to 
benefit community, nor should such person 
suffer injury pecuniarily for property forci- 
bly taken for the public use or benefit. 

137. It is one of the principal and most 
important of the functions of government 
to protect men in their right to property. 
The constitution gives to Congress power 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 79 

to establish " uniform laws on the subject 
of bankruptcies." (Art. 1, Sec. 4.) This 
is a power to change, summarily, the re- 
lation between debtor and creditor, and 
has been exercised by governments to ab- 
solve a debtor from all future legal obliga- 
tion to pay his debts. 

138. It is an important question whether 
it is wise or just thus to absolve him. The 
unfortunate should be shielded from op- 
pression, and should not be so prostrated 
as to be deprived of all means and of all 
hope of retrieving their condition. While, 
therefore, the unfortunate debtor is entitled 
to governmental protection, he should not 
be so far absolved from his obligations as 
not to be liable, should future success in 
business or good fortune enable him to 
satisfy the just claims of his creditors. 

189. To maintain a government means 
must be provided for its support. These 
are usually derived from duties upon im- 
ports or from taxation. Of these two 



80 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

modes of procuring revenue the one first 
nanfied is attended with the least expense 
of collection, and as it stimulates, for the 
time being at least, the industry of the 
country, by rendering competition from 
abroad in certain articles less formidable, 
is resorted to by most civilized nations. 

140. Beyond question direct taxation 
upon property and incomes is in many re- 
spects the most proper mode of sustaining 
a government, because the most equitable, 
and because the people are thus brought 
more certainly to a realizing sense of the 
government expenditures, and hence in a 
popular government is a check upon and 
preventive of extravagance. 

As the state and municipal governments 
can not with propriety be allowed to exer- 
cise the power of collecting or levying du- 
ties upon imposts, they must, unless sup- 
plied from the general treasury, adopt the 
plan of taxation. Other modes, not to bo 
commended, have in some instances in our 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 81 

country been resorted to for supplying the 
state treasuries. 

141. In the levying of a tax it should 
be borne in mind that, but for the exist- 
ence of rights of property, there would be 
far less occasion or necessity for civil gov- 
ernment. Hence property should be 
mainly the object of taxation, and should, 
as a general rule, be taxed in proportion 
to its fair relative cash value and produc- 
tiveness, but discriminations may with pro- 
priety be made, putting heavier duties 
upon articles of luxury, and none at all 
where the amount owned or the incomes 
are extremely limited, and family expenses 
large. 

142. Although as a general rule each 
individual is, in matters of charity, directly 
responsible to his Maker for his treatment 
of the unfortnnate, yet this duty is so often 
neglected or illy performed, that the gov- 
ernment is justified in making a discrimi- 
nation in favor of the poor in its exactions 



82 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

for support. It is the duty of the govern- 
ment also to provide for the helpless and 
destitute, and to give a comfortable sup- 
port from the public treasury to persons of 
this character, according as their wants 
and their merits may demand. The aged, 
the infirm, and the unfortunate, who, in 
their adversity, swerve not from the path 
of rectitude and duty, are entitled to a 
comfortable and respectable support at the 
hands of their more fortunate fellow-be- 
ings. Systematic plans for the relief of 
the unfortunate are preferable to irregular 
contributions. • They are more likely to 
afford the relief required at the right time 
and in the right amount, and they should 
be so well arranged and so efficient in ev- 
ery community that street begging and 
extreme suffering from privation should 
only be known as we read of them in the 
history of the past. 

143. To labor is a necessity and a duty, 
for by it is obtained the means of bodily 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 83 

health, and comfort, and support, and 
whatever is termed property. In the in- 
tervals of daily toil men are not to be dis- 
turbed, but they are to be protected in the 
enjoyment of the rest needful for the pur- 
pose and for the moral wellbeing of man. 
If the rest enjoined by the Decalogue is 
required for man's wellbeing, as but few 
will doubt, it is the duty of government to 
enjoin and enforce abstinence from servile 
labor, and from unhealthy amusements on 
each seventh day, a duty — happily for 
mankind — made imperative by the express 
command of God. 

144. If there are, in community, those 
who are disturbers of the peace, or who 
are guilty of doing that which is an injury 
or a nuisance to others, it is the duty of 
government to compel the oflfending party 
to a better course of conduct. Abuses of 
the family institution, such as are now 
practiced in a remote portion of our coun- 
try, it is also the duty of government to 



84 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

correct. A system so repugnant to reason, 
so hostile to the best interests of society, 
and especially destructive to the wellbeing 
of those who enter life under its influence, 
should be unhesitatingly suppressed. All 
who are guilty of doing in any way that 
which is injurious to the general welfare, 
or is an infringement upon individual 
rights, arc proper objects for the correcting 
hand of the government. 

145. The government of a country is 
supreme within its limits. Those who are 
entrusted with the reins of power for the 
time being, may err as to what is right 
and proper to be done, but the power to 
direct must not be questioned or resisted. 
The laws of the land are to be as rigidly 
enforced under a free government as under 
any other, the only difference consisting iu 
the fact, that in the former case there is a 
far better guaranty that they will be in 
accordance with justice and with the best 
good of the governed, than in the latter. 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 86 

146. To ensure the due enforcement of 
the laws, and to be fully and properly pre- 
pared to resist aggressions from abroad, 
all of the male inhabitants of the country 
of a proper age who are able to bear arms 
should be liable to military duty — should 
be enrolled, and organized, and ready when 
the necessities of the country require, to 
give to it their support, and at the cost, if 
need be, of their lives. It is as true now 
as in the time of Tacitus that ''' the repose 
of nations can not be secure without arms." 

147. Preparation for war in time of 
peace was tiie farewell advice of our na- 
tion's great benefactor, the wisdom of 
which has been fully confirmed by our past 
experience as a nation ; but in giving to 
the government a strong arm for this pur- 
pose, that arm should be so regulated and 
identified with the great interests of the 
country that full reliance may at all times 
be placed upon its loyalty and patriotism. 

148. Until the characters of men are 
8 



86 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

materially changed, encroachments upon 
national and individual rights must be an- 
ticipated, and the art of defence must be 
cultivated, and a military force maintained 
adequate for any exigency that may arise. 
We must have 

" The show of war to keep 
The substance of sweet peace." 

Preparation for defence is the best safe- 
guard against aggression, and the ability 
and disposition to effect a prompt suppres- 
sion of insurrection its surest preventive. 

149. It is the duty of the governing 
power to see that every proper facility is 
afforded for the right training and educa- 
tion of the youth of the country. The 
mo3t important part of this training, that 
part in which the moral character is mainly 
formed and strengthened to encounter the 
temptations and trials of life, is effected, 
during the earlier years of parental guid- 
ance, and can only be properly effected in_ 
well ordered and pleasant homes. 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 87 

150 This period is succeeded by an- 
other, in which external aia is advanta- 
geously employed to perfect our youth 
in those branches of knowledge which it 
is the especial business of our higher 
seminaries of learning to teach. 

151. Governmental appropriations for 
educational institutions should be in pro- 
portion to population, and the advanta- 
ges afforded available to the children of 
all classes. In this view the course of 
instruction should be adapted to the ne- 
cessities of all, and they should be so far 
under governmental authority as to en- 
sure in each a proper and efficient disci- 
pline. For the male members of such 
institutions, a course of military train- 
ing, to fit them for all the duties of citi- 
zens, is important. This training, under 
a proper organization, will not interfere 
with the necessary liours for study, while 
it affords a wholesome, regular and manly 
exercise. Under such a system the plan 



88 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

of manual labor may be beneficially in- 
troduced, thus economically combining 
intellectual and moral and physical cul- 
ture in a manner to promote in the high- 
est degree mental and bodily vigor and a 
healthy moral condition of the youth of 
the country. 

152. As society improves and civiliza- 
tion advances, the amount of written or 
recorded knowledge is increased, and the 
period of scholarship is necessarily ex- 
tended. The opportunities for profitable 
labor have been heretofore so great in 
our country, that our youth have in too 
many instances entered the arena of 
busy, active life, without the knowledge 
or the qualifications they might have ac- 
quired, and which would have fitted them 
for greater usefulness/ and given them 
greater success in their several callings, 
and made them better members of so- 
ciety. 

163. Education is so vitally essential 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 89 

to the maintenance of a right govern- 
ment, that the youth of the country 
should remain long enough under pa- 
rental control to be able to defray, by 
their labor, the cost of a proper educa- 
tion, and the responsibility should rest 
upon parents or guardians to see that 
the education of their children is prop- 
erly cared for. 

If the age of twenty-one years, the 
period now fixed in most of the States 
for entering upon the responsibilities of 
life, is too limited, as it is likely to be, it 
is the duty of the governing power to 
extend that limit. 

15-i. Next in importance to the educa- 
tion of the youth of a country, is the 
right conduct of tjie periodical press, and 
the character of its literature. 

A healthy moral condition of society 
can not obtain where the press is venal 
and its literature is reeking witli sensu- 
ality, and blackened by infidelity. It is 
8* 



90 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

the dvity of government to keep the 
moral atmosphere of a country as pure 
as possible. 

165. Offences against right and justice 
and truth and virtue are proper objects 
for the attention and the correcting hand 
of the government. The power to cor- 
rect evils of this description must not be 
questioned. It is as essential in the gov- 
ernment of a people as in that of a fam- 
ily. Men have less excuse than children 
for bad conduct, and require a sterner 
and more decided treatment. Let it not 
be said that this is giving to government 
too much power. In a rightly constituted 
government the security for the proper 
exercise of its powers is as ample as it is 
possible to make it. Tinder any other 
form the power o.nd the duty wovld still 
exists without the guaranty for its just ex- 
ercise which a rightly constituted govern-^ 
ment affords. 

156. The purity of the elections is of 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 91 

the highest importance to the mainte- 
nance of good government. To this end 
the vote by ballot should be sacredly pre- 
served and shielded from all possible 
abuse. 

The nominations of candidates for of- 
fice should also be so regulated, by law, 
as that none but the most suitable and 
deserving shall be likely to receive sup- 
port. In these particulars it is impossi- 
ble to be too vigilant and careful. The 
civil government of a country should be 
placed entirely beyond the reach of those 
who may be disposed to pervert or abuse 
its powers, and it is the especial duty of 
the heads of families to see that it is so 
placed. 

157. Upon the supreme government 
of a country devolves, of necessity, the 
power to make treaties, to declare war, 
to regulate commerce, to direct and to 
execute those improvements which are 
essential to the safe navigation of sea 



92 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

and lake coasts, and to a certain extent 
of the larger rivers, and by a prudent 
forecast to erect and maintain, at proper 
points, and by modes the most suitable 
and efficient, defences for the protection 
of the persons and property of the people 
from aggression. 

158. The incalculable importance of a 
Bound and uniform currency, which shall 
circulate freely and without depreciation 
over all portions of a country, renders 
necessary the agency of the supreme 
power of the land in the establishment 
of such a currency. Upon the general 
government devolves the duty of coining 
money from the precious metals, regula- 
ting its value, and of suppVu^ing what- 
ever in the nature of currency is required 
by the necessities of the country. 

159. Occupying, as do the United 
States, a prominent position among the 
nations of the earth, and having by rea- 
son of the intelligence and enterprise of 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 93 

our people, commercial relations more or 
less intimate with all, it follows that the 
currency of the country must, for gen- 
eral convenience, be of a character ac- 
ceptable to other nations, or easily con- 
verted into that which is acceptable. A 
currency which can be readily and clieap- 
ly converted into gold and silver is there- 
fore of the utmost importance. In a time 
of peace and confidence, the proportion 
of coin necessary to meet the wants of 
trade is very small, not exceeding two to 
three per cent, of the property valuation 
of the country. The necessary increase 
in the circjilation in time of war, and 
unguarded paper issues in time of peace, 
deranges unavoidably the currents of 
trade, destroys confidence, and specie 
takes a value, while the disorder contin- 
ues, far beyond what it is relatively worth 
in times of quiet and repose. 

160. It is the duty of all, whether oc- 
cupying places of trust in the govern- 



94 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

ment, or otlierwise, to strive to guard the 
country from those causes which produce 
derangement in the currency, and which 
inflict so much of suffering and evil upon 
the poorer and industrial classes, upon 
whom ultimately the burden most heav- 
ily falls. 

161. It will be understood, from what 
has been said, that civil government is to 
be viewed as a Divine institution. That, 
however formed, it has the Divine sanc- 
tion. That forcible resistance to it, when 
properly organized and established, in 
accordance with natural or divine law, 
is one of the greatest of crimes. That 
the power to organize and institute gov- 
ernment is vested by divine appointment 
in the heads of families. That this being 
clearly understood, as it must be, before 
the blessing of the best government can 
be enjoyed, those who are heads of fam- 
ilies will be held accountable if they neg- 
lect to perform the solemn duties imposed 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 95 

upon them, — duties assumed by them, 
when at God's altar, or iu any other less 
suitable mode, they vowed to sustain in a 
proper manner the marital relation, and 
to do and perform before fiigh heaven all 
which that relation enjoins. 

162. In entering upon this new rela- 
tion, they become pledged to assist and 
to co-operate with each other, to secure, 
by the agency of a right government, the 
protection especially needed for promo- 
ting the best good of their families, for 
securing their moral and intellectual im- 
provement, and giving to them those op- 
portunities and advantages which will 
conduce most to the wellbeing .of so- 
ciety. 

163. They are bound by every obliga- 
tion of duty to their Creator, to their 
families, and to their fellow-men, to 
firmly maintain, Avithin their own grasp, 
the political power of the country. No 
preference for measures of state, or for 



96 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

creeds in religion, should be allowed to 
interpose and prevent their acting as one 
great united body in holding the control 
of the government. They must consider 
themselves espScially and solely responsi- 
ble for the good organization and admin- 
istration of government. They may, and 
will doubtless, differ among tliemselves 
as to measures, as to the proper mode of 
performing their duties, but all such dif- 
ferences must be settled upon the major- 
ity principle, a principle which must be 
held inviolably sacred. 

164. In a government thus founded 
and organized, there can be no justifica- 
tion foi' revolution. If our government 
possessed this character, our standard 
works upon ethics and commentaries 
upon the laws of the land would not be 
stained with exceptional cases, where re- 
sistance to government or resort to the 
bloody hand of revolution is not only 
not considered as a crime, but may be 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT, 97 

meritorious and patriotic, and an act to 
be commended. 

165. The consciences of visionary re- 
formers and disturbers of the public quiet 
could have no such high authority to rest 
upon, and to encourage them in resist- 
ance to the laws and in efforts forcibly to 
change the ruling power of the nation. 
They would be deprived of all pretext 
for revolution, and their offence, if per- 
sisted in, would become a naked assault 
upon the rights, the liberties, and best 
interests of the people, — an act like that 
of piracy or murder, deserving the sever- 
est rebuke and punishment. 

166. The doctrine that submission to 
government is to be placed upon the 
dangerous ground of " public expedien- 
cy,'' would not be inculcated in our 
highest seminaries of learning, neither 
would our youth be taught that " it may 
be as much a duty at one time to resist 
government, as at another to obey it," — 

9 



98 CIVIL GOVERNMENT* 

that " the lawfulness of resistance, or the 
lawfulness of revolt, does not depend 
alone upon the grievance which is sus- 
tained or feared, but also upon the prob- 
able expense and event of the contest," — 
a doctrine which ignores all obligations 
of justice, and makes no discrimination 
between might and right. 

167. The co-operation required by the 
married state, and the responsibilities at- 
taching to it, must be considered as para- 
mount. 

To the family interest all other con- 
siderations must be subservient. The 
heads of families can not neglect the 
responsibilities resting upon them and 
stand blameless before God. 

Those, whom- heaven has blessed with 
offspring, will be held accountable for 
their proper nurture and training, — will 
be held accountable, that all wliich paren- 
tal duty and affection and judgment can 
eifect is done for their wellbeing. That 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT, 99 

all proper means have been adopted to 
render tliem worthy and useful members 
of society, and more capable than their 
parents, having better opportunities, and 
working in a less difficult field, to still 
further elevate and improve those who 
may succeed them. 

168. The importance of family co-ope- 
ration must be clearly understood before 
society can receive the benefit it is sure 
to confer. All who are in positions of 
influence,— the Church, our seminaries 
of learning, the learned professions, the 
host of able men who are itinerating the 
country, and by their eloquence and 
learning are elevating the public mind 
and lieart to a higher plane of knowledge, 
and clearer convictions of duty, must 
make it the frequent theme of discourse, 
and lose no favorable opportunity for in- 
culcating the importance of attention to 
it. If we mean to become a wiser, a bet- 
ter, and a happier people, the family in- 



100 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

terest must be allowed the precedence, 
must receive our first attention, to be fol- 
lowed by other interests of importance, 
in the order of their importance. 

If to every family can be given that 
which each needs for the full and proper 
development of the powers, moral and 
intellectual of its members, the desired 
improvement in society and happiness of 
all will follow, as surely as vegetable 
growth follows the rain drops and the 
sunlight. 

169. Sufficient, it is believed, has been 
said to convey a very clear idea of what is 
probably the best form of civil govern- 
ment. That it is an expansion or devel- 
opment, as it were, of the family institu- 
tion. The conclusion is, indeed, one not 
easily to be avoided, that all true gave^'n- 
ment of and by intelligent beings^ from 
the Godhead down is paternal in charac- 
ter. 

How near we of the United States 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 101 

have approached to the better system, 
will be attempted to be shown in another 
place. 

170. In every undertaking it is import- 
ant to know precisely what it is that is 
proposed to be accomplished. 

Intelligent effort supposes the object 
aimed at to be clearly understood. This 
is essential to ultimate success. The 
value of a good government can not be 
over-estimated. The evil of a bad one, 
although often experienced in the world's 
history, can not easily be described. 

Never, since the first attempt to form 
a system of civil government, has there 
been a time when the circumstances were 
so favorable for its establishment, on a 
right basis, as the present ; and never 
were a people so well prepared as those 
of the United States by education and by 
opportunities for improvement, moral 
and intellectual, to uphold and perpetu- 
ate a right government when established. 
6* 



102 CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

171. Since the day of our separation 
from, and independence of, European 
and Eastern institutions and customs, we 
have made a most wonderful progress in 
the theory and in the practical exempli- 
fication of the best form of government, 
but it will be seen by the comparison to 
be made in a future number in connec- 
tion with what has already been said, 
that we are still in the valley and the 
shadow of experiment, still distant from 
the summit and sunlight of perfection. 
It will be seen that the arid sands of the 
desert and the waters which flow into the 
Dead Sea of selfishness, of prejudice and 
ignorance, still reflect the rays of a burn- 
ing sun between us and the promised 
land of rest and quiet, — that glorious 
rest and quiet which is possible even in 
this world under a government heaven- 
born and sustained by a people who, com- 
prehending their duty, have the moral 
qualities necessary to its performance. 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 103 

172. Life and motion and change are 
every where active. The present has no 
parallel in the past, and will have none 
in the future. The great current of ex- 
istence moves unceasingly forward, not 
equably but still forward. It has its ac- 
cellerations and retardations, now ad- 
vancing with varying strides, and now 
seemingly retrograde or stationary. 

We are, as a nation, floating onward 
with this great current, and the future 
must unfold to us whether we have the 
ability to shun the obstructions, and es- 
cape the dangers of the channel in which 
we seem now to be drifting. If we have 
this ability we may, in time, reach the 
consummation of the best government, 
with all of the blessings it is sure to con- 
fer. If we have not, the future will 
bring its clouds and storms, and may find 
us a hopeless wreck in the whirlpool of 
anarchy, or leave us in the iron grasp of 
a monarchy or a despotism. 



THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED 
STATES. 



" The basis of our political system is the right of the people 
to make and alter their constitution of government ; but th« 
constitution which at any time exists^ until changed by an expli- 
cit and authentic act of the whole people^ is sacredly obligatory 
upon all.''^ — Washington's Farewell Address. 

1. We gave in a former number an 
exposition of the character of civil gov- 
ernment, and presented some considera- 
tions that should govern in its constitu- 
tion, and in its administration. 

2. It was shown that civil government 
is as necessary to man as the sun that 
warms and vivifies, and the earth which 
gives him nourishment and rest and shel- 
ter upon its bosom ; — that it is essential, 
absolutely so, to the full development of 
his natural powers, and to his happiness 



106 THE GOVERNMENT OP 

and wellbeing, and is thus a part, and a 
most important part, of the plan of Prov- 
idence, ordained from the beginning, and 
hence is, in the strictest sense, a divine 
institution. 

3. It has a character in this respect so 
plainly marked, and so unequivocal, that 
its mandates, or the laws enacted by it, 
are as sacredly binding as if promulga- 
ted from the source of all power, in the 
most direct and positive manner. 

4. The Almighty could not announce 
to us in plainer terms than he has done, 
that obedience to the laws of the land is 
obedience to his will. It is made known 
to us through our reason, througli those 
faculties by which we are enabled to 
comprehend his laws, and in the record 
made by hands which he has inspired. 

6. He gives us clearly to understand 
that the laws of the land are not unlike 
those other laws of his for the regulation 
of his universe, and that obedience to 



THE UNITED STATES. 107 

them is a duty, and this obedience must 
be rendered without regard to our esti- 
mate of their character, whether they be 
right or wrong. 

6. That they may be sometimes wrong 
is possible, and even probable, for man 
when acting with the best intentions is 
liable to err ; less liable, however, if he 
acts under a proper sense of his respon- 
sibility as God's agent, which he truly is, 
when fulfilling the duties of a legislator, 
however elected or elevated to so import- 
ant an office. 

7. Under a government rightly consti- 
tuted, resistance to the laws of the land 
becomes in this view one of the greatest 
of crimes. Under other forms, it is also 
a crime of a very dark character, and 
can only be justified, if justified at all, 
on the <^round, which must be clearly 
demonstrated, that the evil of resistance 
is less than that of obedience. 

8. Resistance to the regularly consti- 



108 THE GOVERNMENT OP 

tuted authorities of the land is a crime, 
if possible, of a deeper dye in proportion 
as civilization advances, because derang- 
ing to a greater extent the industry of a 
country, and destructive in a higher de- 
gree of those beneficent efforts for man's 
improvement and welfare, which are the 
offspring of a state of peace and quiet. 
In a rude condition of society, the mis- 
chief produced by forcible attempts at 
revolution is comparatively slight; but 
when society has advanced to that degree 
which creates a necessity for a division 
of the labor of a country, and the invest- 
ment of its capital in works of magnitude, 
and of great public utility, the jmischief 
is incalculably great ; and if it be a free 
government, receiving a willing support 
from the majority of the governed, forci- 
ble resistance to it becomes a great and 
terrible crime, a crime for which there is 
m) justification. 

9. In the paper alluded to, it was 



THE UNITED STATES. 109^ 

demonstrated, as is believed, that the 
family institution is the true source and 
basis of civil government ; — that the gov- 
erning power of society rests primarily 
with the heads of families ; — that the 
state is property an assemblage of favii- 
lieSj represented each by its governing 
head, 

10. When the families in a state be- 
come so numerous as to render action by 
their governing heads impracticable, then 
resort must be had to a system of repre- 
sentation, — that is to say, every two or 
more families, as the case may be, must 
select some one to represent them in the 
government. 

The government thus constituted is a 
representative government ; and this is the 
true character of all free governments. 

11. The conclusions at which we ar- 
rived were sustained by reason, by natu- 
ral law, and by the inspired record. 
These give a divine character to civil 

10 



110 THE GOVERNMENT OP 

government, and point to the family in- 
stitution as its proper basis. 

12. The revealed will of God is, in all 
respects, consistent with natural rights, 
and, in most cases, is simply declaratory 
of those rights, — is declaratory of those 
other laws of His which are manifest to 
the eye of reason, in his works, and in 
the book of nature. 

13. While in entire harmony with the 
laws of nature, a harmony w^hich is the 
strongest proof that what is given to us 
as a special revelation is indeed such, it 
comes to us supported by other evidence 
equally conclusive. 

The Almighty has been pleased to ac- 
company these revelations of his will, 
given for the help of our weak natures 
struggling upward to a higher and better 
life, the aid of divinely constituted 
teachers, namely, a church, and a priest- 
hood, and sacraments, especially institu- 
4;ed and established by Christ, its spiritual 



THE UNITED STATES. Ill 

head ; and because thus specially institu- 
ted, must, to preserve its divine charac- 
ter, be continued in the particular man- 
ner which he has prescribed and approved 
— must keep itself, in imitation of the ex- 
ample of its great founder, '^ unspotted 
from the world." 

14. A church and a priesthood whose 
especial and only duty it is to make 
known the great truths of revelation, — 
to cultivate and to develop that which in 
man's nature is most noble and godlike, 
and to lead souls, by the power of moral 
teaching, and example, and the grace of 
God, from darkness and sin to the light 
and life of heaven. 

15. Without the supernatural aids thus 
given, and a priesthood thus instituted, 
mankind would still be groping and 

^stumbling in the regions of darkness and 
doubt, would still be where all that por- 
tion of the race now are upon whom the 
light of Christianity has not fallen. 



112 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

16. It was shown in our remarks upon 
civil government, that up to the time 
when the United States took their place 
among the nations of the earth, intelli- 
gent minds had progressed so far in de- 
veloping the true theory of civil govern- 
ment, as to expose the fallacy of the di- 
vine right of kings, substituting in its 
place the consent of the people, or of the 
governed, as the true basis of lawful gov- 
ernment. This substitute was without 
any proper qualification or explanation 
as to what was meant by the terms " the 
people," or "the governed." 

17. Our fathers, influenced by the 
teachings of the writers on civil govern- 
ment, after announcing their separation 
from the crown of England, proceeded to 
institute governments founded upon the 
consent of the people. The vagueness of 
the expression, "the people," did not de- 
ter them from its use, and we accordingly 
find it employed by them to indicate the 



THE UNITED STATES. 113 

source in which resides tlie supreme 
power of the state, and from whfch in 
the formation of a right government it 
must emanate. 

18. In the instrument declaratory of 
the separation of the colonies from the 
government of England, the expression, 
''the people," is used, and very prop- 
erly, in its most comprehensive sense, 
as embracing the entire population whose 
interests suffered by the arbitrary and 
tyrannical character of that govern- 
ment. 

19. When, however, it became neces- 
sary to establish governments, both state 
and national, and to frame the funda. 
mental laws for their organization, it was 
necessary to be more explicit, and hence, 
for the purposes of representation and 
direct taxes, they were pleased to say in 
the federal constitution, that ''the peo- 
ple " should mean " all free persons, 
those bound to service for a term of 

10* 



114 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

years, Indians taxed, and three-fifths of 
all other persons." 

20. This is all which the Constitution 
of the United States has to say upon this 
subject, except to authorize Congress to 
establish a uniform rule of naturalization, 
and to provide that the qualifications of 
electors of representatives in Congress 
shall be the same as for the election of 
the most numerous branch of the legis- 
lature of the state they represent. 

21. The elective franchise, which was 
at first greatly restricted in the several 
states, has been, under the popular doc- 
trine of universal sufi'rage, so much ex- 
tended, particularly in the free states, as 
to embrace, in most of the latter, all 
white male citizens of the United States 
who have attained the age of twenty -one 
years, and who have resided for a definite 
time in the state and in the town where 
they may claim to vote. 

22. This change in the qualifications 



THE UNITED STATES. 115 

of electors has not, it is believed, in the 
more extreme cases been attended with 
salutary results. The experience of the 
past very clearly proves that universal 
suffrage, if practicable, which it is not, 
as embracing the entire population, is 
not as great a blessing as claimed by 
some writers, and that the franchise in 
most, if not all of the states, is not vested 
where it should be for the stability of 
government and the best good of the 
governed. 

23. This fact, in connection with the 
reasons and the evidence adduced in favor 
of a franchise based upon the family insti- 
tution, shows that a change is demanded 
in our constitutions of government and 
laws to make them conform to higher and 
better laws, and promotive of the best in- 
terests of the people. 

The political power of the country 
must, it is believed, be placed where it has 
been demonstrated it rightfully belongs, 



116 THE GOVERNMENT OP 

viz. : witli tlie heads of families, who must 
hold it exclusively in their liands as the 
most appropriate depositaries of so high a 
trust, and as affording the best guaranty 
for the stability of government and its just 
administration. 

24. If, therefore, the position is a correct 
one — that the heads of families are the 
true governing power in society — that civil 
government is properly an institution of 
their creation — that they are responsible 
for its proper organization — that it is their 
duty to designate the properly qualified 
electors — to reject such from their own 
number as are unfit, and to admit otliers 
only who are from age and moral standing 
worthy of such a trust, the question arises 
— is the exercise of this power consistent 
with the constitutions of our general and 
state governments as now established. 

25. The reply is, that no material change 
in those constitutions is required. 

All that is needed is simply to amend 



THE UNITED STATES. 117 

the state constitutions so as to vest in the 
heads of families the supreme power, viz. • 
the power to designate electors, to make 
and unmake them as they shall deem ex- 
pedient and proper. Those who are thus 
made electors of the most numerous 
branch of the state legislatures are already 
by the federal constitution electors under 
tlie general government. 

26. The change thus made in the state 
constitutions will be similar in character 
to that made in the foundation of a build- 
ing by removing from it an unsound por- 
tion and substituting a more perfect in its 
place. To effect this there need be no de- 
rangement or disturbance of the super- 
structure, nor any interruption to the op- 
erations of either government. 

27. The heads of families, by concert of 
action, are numerically able to effect this 
change through the ballot-box, without 
disturbing in the least the course of the 
government, but it can only be done under 



118 THE GOVERNMENT OP 

the conviction, wliicli must be general with 
them, that the assumption or exercise of 
the power by them as a body is essential 
to the general welfare, and a sacred and 
solemn duty which they owe to themselves, 
their families, their country, and their God, 
a duty which they are not at liberty to 
neglect. 

28. The question may be asked, how do 
these views accord with the assertion in 
the Declaration of Independence that "all 
ipen are created equal;" from which it 
may be inferred that all have the same 
political rights, and are entitled each to an 
equal voice in the government. The an- 
swer is, that men are not so created either 
physically, intellectually, or morally, as 
must be obvious without illustration. 

29. How then are they equal? Equal 
because the cliildren of the same Father. 
Equal in their relation to Him, the Creator 
and Ruler of all, and because of tliis equal 
relation, united by one great tie and bond 



THE UNITED STATES. 119 

of brotherhood which embraces the whole 
human race. What this bond implies it 
is not difficult to understand. What is 
demanded by it in the narrow circle of the 
family we all know. In the great family 
of God the force of the obligations involved 
is in no respect lessened, but, if possible, 
increased. 

80. '' Love to our neighbor as ourselves ' 
is the formula which comprehends in the 
fewest words man's social obligations. 

The full and true meaning of this God- 
given formula is but feebly indicated in 
the words quoted from the declaration of 
independence, words, as already stated, 
which if taken in their literal sense as ap- 
plied to man's natural endowments phys- 
ically, intellectually, and morally, and to 
his natural and political rights, are with- 
out truth, and in their effect upon feeble 
and ignorant minds, if advanced as such, 
may be productive of serious mischief and 
injury to the best good and welfare of the 
race. 



120 THE GOVERNMENT OP 

31. Men are not only not created equal, 
but every step which man takes in the 
pathway of life brings him into circum- 
stances and under influences which tend 
to create disparity in the conditions of 
men — a disparity which is the result of 
the immutable laws of nature which man 
has not the knowledge or ability to control, 
or which thi'ough sloth or indifference he 
does not endeavor to control. 

82. These differing circumstances and 
influences affect very materially the com- 
forts and enjoyments of men, and fre- 
quently press so heavily and hardly upon 
the unfortunate as to call for sympathy 
and assistance from the more fortunate, 
demanding from them, by reason of the 
common brotherhood, the relief which 
they have the ability to bestow. 

83. Of the circumstances and influences 
which affect the condition of men individ- 
ually, their comfort and enjoyment, there 
are few more potent than those which pro- 



THE UNITED STATES. 121 

ceed from the goveriimeiit under which 
they are placed. 

34. The true end and aim of civil gov- 
ernment is protection to the family inter- 
est, and the individual from injustice and 
wrong, and to repress, as far as a govern- 
ment may, all tendencies to inequality in 
the conditions of men, and to aid, also, as 
far as government has the power, in ren- 
dering man's labor most effective for the 
general good. 

35. History shows that most civil gov- 
ernments have been instruments of in- 
creasing the natural and necessary inequal- 
ities in the conditions of men, instead of 
lessening them; that in many instances 
they have been a scourge instead of a pro- 
tection and a blessing, a means by which 
a few are enabled to tyrannize over the 
many, and to monopolize the fruit of their 
labors by taking from labor the bread it 
has earned and making therefor no ade- 
quate return, 

11 



122 THE GOVERNMENT OP 

36. We have in the United States en- 
deavored to institute a form of government 
free from the defects of all previous forms. 
We have formed one upon the basis of 
the common brotherhood of man. A gov- 
ernment founded by the governed upon 
the majority principle, the latter holding 
the power to change or re-elect their rulers 
or servants at stated periods, thus enabling 
them to remove an oppressive or unfaithful 
administration by the peaceful method of 
the ballot, and rendering a resort to force 
to effect the same object not only unne- 
cessary, but a great crime. 

87. The several states of the Union in 
changing their condition from that of col- 
onies had comparatively little difficulty in 
organizing their state governments, but 
when for their mutual protection and de- 
fense, and attainment of their independ- 
ence, an Union of all the states was re- 
quired, very serious difficulties arose. 
38. In their transformation from colo- 



THE UNITED STATES. 123 

nies into states they retained tlicir colonial 
boundaries, and unfortunately, also, to a 
very great degree, the distrust and sec- 
tional pride which a people, under different 
governments, speaking in some instances 
a different language, and having a different 
religion, are too apt to entertain towards 
each other. This distrust and jealousy 
prevailed at the forming of the Confeder- 
ation to a serious degree, as is evident from 
the circular addressed by the first Congress 
to the states when submitting to them the 
articles of confederation for approval. 

39. It is therein stated that '• the busi- 
ness equally intricate and important has 
in its progress been attended with uncom- 
mon embarrassments and delay, which the 
most anxious solicitude and persevering 
diligence could not prevent,-' and this too 
when the incipient states, feeble and ex- 
posed by a long line of coast to tlie mari- 
time and other forces of Great Britain, 
needed all the support and strength which 



124 THE GOVERNMENT OP 

it was in the power of the Confederation 
to bestow. 

40. The character of the Union under 
the Confederation as expressed in the 3d 
article, was that of "a firm league of 
friendship," entered into by the states 
" for their common defence, the security 
of their liberties, and their mutual and 
general welfare, binding themselves to as- 
sist each other against all force offered to, 
or attacks made upon them or any of them, 
on account of religion, sovereignty, or 
trade, or any other pretense whatever;" 
and this Union was declared to be "per- 
petual." 

41. Twelve years of experiment under 
the articles of Confederation, during most 
of which time the country was struggling 
for its independence, and had every in- 
ducement to unity and harmony of action, 
was sufficient to demonstrate that such an 
union as was then formed was inadequate 
to effect the object sought to be attained. 



THE UNITED STATES. 125 

It was iimdcquate in time of war, and 
found to bo worthless in time of peace. 

42. The history of this period shows 
that the authority of the general govern- 
ment was, in very many instances, disre- 
garded, and that of the states much weak- 
ened in consequence, and in some instan- 
ces nearly destroyed. 

It was discovered that something more 
than a " firm league of friendship," some- 
thing differing radically from a confeder- 
ation, was demanded to meet the neces- 
sities of the country. 
^ 43. So long as the war of the Revolu- 
tion continued, and the safety and wel- 
fare of the people rendered unity of 
action among the states essential, the 
defects in the confederation, although 
manifestly great, were less seriously felt ; 
but the moment peace was declared, and 
all outward pressure removed, the want 
of a central power competent to secure 
the prompt and harmonious action of the 
^ 11* 



126 THE GOVERNMENT OP 

several parts, became alarmingly appa- 
rent. 

44. It was then evident to the best 
minds, that no " league of friendship," 
or " alliance between the states," was 
adequarte to accomplish the object to be 
attained ; — that nothing short of a gov- 
ernment embracing the Tfhole Union, 
having its foundation not less deep and 
broad than that which sustained the 
state governments, would answer the 
purpose. 

45. It is doing the delegates to the 
convention which framed the Constitu- 
tion no injustice to say, that probably a 
large majority of them went to that con- 
vention impressed with the idea that the 
change or improvement sought could be 
effected by a modification or alteration of 
the Articles of Confederation, and such 
was evidently the idea entertained at the 
time by the legislatures of most of the 
states, as appears from the wording of the 



THE UNITED STATES. 127 

several acts of each, appointing delegates 
to the convention. 

46. As that convention progressed in 
its labors, the conviction came strongly 
upon the minds of its members, that any 
attempt to improve the Articles of Con- 
federation was useless. They saw that 
the character of the structure which they 
were called upon to build, must be widely 
different from the one under which they 
were then living ; — that they must begin 
at the foundation, using new materials 
throughout ; — that their business was not 
to make more perfect a *' league of friend- 
ship," a compact, or an alliance, but to 
frame a constitution for a system of gov- 
ernment, in the full sense of that word, — 
a government which should embrace the 
people of all the states, — a government 
having all the prerogatives of the highest 
ruling power, and capable of maintaining 
itself against foes within and enemies 
without, — a government in which is vest- 



128 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

ed the ''jura summa imperii^''^ as Black- 
stone has it, the supreme authority, ab- 
solute and uncontrolled, — a government 
which should stand, as such, upon its 
own broad foundation, independent of 
the state organizations, — a government 
which, in the event of a revolt or failure 
of one or more of the states to conform 
to the requirements of the fundamental 
law, and other laws duly passed in ac- 
cordance with it, should possess the 
power, the physical power, (and a gov- 
ernment knows no other,) of compelling 
obedience, — should possess, wiiat is es- 
sential to every properly constituted gov- 
ernment, the power to enforce its lawful 
and constitutional behests. 

47. Looking to the history of the past, 
as far as that history could furnish les- 
sons of experience adapted to the novel 
circumstances in which tliey were placed, 
they saw, to quote the words of Mr. Mad- 
ison in the Federalist, that, " in all the 



THE UNITED STATES. 129 

examples of ancient and modern confeder- 
acies^ the strongest tendency continually 
betraying itself in the members to despoil 
the general government of its authorities^ 
with a very ineffectnal capacity in the lat- 
ter to defend itself against the encroach- 
ments.'^^ 

48. It was the endeavor of the wisest 
and best minds in the convention, to so 
establish the relations of the general and 
state governments, that the latter should 
not be " regarded as constituent and es- 
sential parts of the former." They there- 
fore, in the most distinct and emphatic 
manner, made the ordainment and estab- 
lishment of the Constitution the act of 
" We, the People of the United States," 
and declared it to be the " supreme law 
of the land," — all other laws to be pow- 
erless and invalid if enacted in opposi- 
tion to it, from whatever source they 
might emanate. 

49. From the moment of the adoption 



130 THE GOVERNMENT OP 

of the Constitution by the people of the 
United States, which was done in con- 
ventions especially called in the several 
states, there was not within the limits of 
the United States any higher law, or any 
law emanating from any local source, 
equally supreme. 

50. It is now just seventy-six years 
since the Constitution was ordained and 
established. 

The history of this period shows the 
greatest danger to exist, not from en- 
croachments upon the rights and powers 
of the states by the general government, 
but, on the contrary, in the assumption 
on the part of the latter of powers not 
given to tliem, either in the general or 
state constitutions. 

The history of this short period shows 
most clearly, that the greatest danger 
lies where it has been so fatally man- 
ifest in the history of all similar govern- 
ments, in the disposition of the members 



THE UNITED STATES. 131 

*' to despoil the general government of 
its authorities." 

61. The doctrine of State Rights, as it 
is called, has been from the first the ready 
refuge of the discontented and dema- 
gogues in all sections of our country, not 
excepting certain portions of what we are 
now proud to denominate tlie Union-lov- 
ing North. It has beeiijthe canker at the 
foundation of the government from the 
time when first enunciated in the Vir- 
ginia resolutions of 1798, ten years after 
the Constitution became the fundamental 
law of the Union, up to the time when 
the poisonous seed then sown shed its 
baleful fruit in ju^stification of the pres- 
ent rebellion. 

62. Scarcely had the Constitution re- 
ceived its final ratification, before a move- 
ment was made and an amendment ef- 
fected for curtailing the powers of the 
national judiciary in cases where the 
states were a party ; and the history of 



132 THE GOVERNMENT OP 

our country from that time to the pres- 
ent affords convincing proofs of the gen- 
eral tendency to deprive the national gov- 
ernment of its powers, or to interfere im- 
properly with their exercise. This ten- 
dency has been so great in the portion of 
our country where African servitude is 
still tolerated, aided by a groundless jeal- 
ousy of the overshadowing influence of 
the national government in other por- 
tions, that it has culminated in the pres- 
ent great revolt and rebellion, — so that 
between fanaticism on the one hand, 
which began by denouncing the national 
constitution as a league with infernals, 
and treason and madness on the other, 
our social and political fabric is being 
shaken to its foundation, and the struct- 
ure itself seriously, most seriously, en- 
dangered; 

63. So important is a clear understand- 
ing of the character and nature of our 
governments, both state and national, an 



THE UNITED STATET. ^ 133 

understanding which can only be reached 
through the history of the latter, that we 
shall, we trust, be excused if we invite 
attention to the circumstances, more in 
detail, which attended the first unsuc- 
cessful effort to establish a republican 
government. 

54. As a necessary consequence to the 
declaration of independence in A.D. 1776, 
the states, uniting in that declaration, 
duly impressed with the importance and 
necessity of a written bond of union, ap- 
pointed delegates to draft and submit for 
their approval such a bond. Of the dif- 
ficulties to be overcome and delays en- 
countered in preparing this bond, and 
securing its adoption or ratification in 
the form of Articles of Confederation, 
we have already spoken. 

55. The Confederation thus formed, 
required but a short trial to show its in- 
efficiency and unfitness for the object in- 
tended, and that something quite differ- 

12 



134 THE GOVERNMENT OP 

ent was demanded to meet the necessities 
of the nation. 

66. The confederation failed because 
it was not a government in the true and 
proper sense of the term, — because it 
was only a " league of friendship," (Art. 
III.,) a compact, an alliance. 

It failed for ''the want of sufficient 
power in Congress to effectuate that ready 
and perfect co-operation of the different 
states, on which their immediate safety 
and future happiness depends." (See 
Resolves of Assembly of New York, July 
21, 1782.) 

67. It failed because of the ''jealousies 
and rivalries of the states," resulting in 
" disobedience to its authority by states 
and individuals," in " discontents," " an- 
imosities," " combinations," " insurrec- 
tions," " contempt of public and private 
faith," "decline of industry," and" uni- 
versal fall in the value of lands and their 
produce." (See President Adams' Inau- 
gural, 1797.) 



THE UNITED STATES. 135 

58. An effort to amend the Articles of 
Confederation, made by commissioners 
assembled at Annapolis in Maryland, in 
the month of September, 1786, also failed. 
They reported " great and numerous de.- 
fects " in the existing system, defects "of 
a nature so serious as to render the situ- 
ation of the United States delicate and 
critical, calling for an exertion of the 
united virtue and wisdom of all the mem- 
bers of the confederacy," — and they pro- 
posed the assembling of a convention to 
remedy the evil. (See Report, Sept. 14, 
1786, to Legislatures of Ya., Del., Pcnn., 
X. J., and N. Y.) 

69. Whereupon Congress recommend- 
ed that delegates from the several states 
assemble in a convention to be held in 
the city of Philadelphia on the second 
Monday of May, 1787 ; " such conven- 
tion appearing to be the most probable 
means of establishing in these states" a 
'' firm national governments^ and of ren- 



136 THE GOVERNMENT OF. 

dering 'Hhe^^ federal constitution adequate 
to the exigencies of government and the 
preservation of the Union^ — (Journal of 
Congress, Feb. 21, 1787,) — evidently de- 
siring and intending that the Union, or 
rather the government comprehending 
the Union, should be perpetual, or as 
lasting as time itself. 

60. The legislatures of the several 
states, in the instructions to their dele- 
gates to the proposed convention, di- 
rected them to frame such a constitu- 
tion as would " be adequate to the exi- 
gencies of government and jweservation> 
of the Union ^^^ — instructions which, in 
the majority of cases, were precisely in 
these words, and in the others did not 
differ from them in their import. 

61. It became evident, on the assem- 
bling of the convention, that the mem- 
bers were, many of them, greatly and 
unduly influenced by local interests, and 
by sectional jealousies, and by an attach- 



THE UNITED STATES. 137 

ment to and prejudice in favor of the 
state governments, which made it diffi- 
cult for them to comprehend the neces- 
sity of state subordination, and the ex- 
tent of the concessions necessary to the 
authority of a national government. 

62. It was not until after four months 
of deliberation and discussion, tliat the 
convention was able to agree upon a form 
of constitution which was believed to be 
competent to effect the great object to be 
attained, viz., that of giving to the gen- 
eral government the character of a de 
facto government, with powers adequate 
to the maintenance of such a cliaracter. 

63. The constitution thus formed, was 
submitted to the people of the United 
States, accompanied by a letter from 
Gen. Washington, the President of the 
Conventiun, in which he states : 

'' That the friends of our country have 
long seen and desired that the power of 
making war, peace, and treaties, that of 
12* 



138 THE GOVERNMENT OP 

levying money and regulating commerce, 
and the correspondent executive and ju- 
dicial authorities, should hefulli/ and ef- 
fectually vested in the general government 
of the Uniony That "- it is obviously 
impracticable in the federal govermjient 
of these states to secure all rights of inde- 
pendent sovereignty to eachJ^ That the 
convention kept " steadily in vieiv the 

CONSOLIDATION OF OUR UnION," IN WHICH 
IS INVOLVED OUR PROSPERITY, FELICITY, 
SAFETY, PERHAPS OUR NATIONAL EXISTENCE. 

(See Letter, Sept. 17, 1787.) 

64. The constitution framed by the con- 
vention, contained a provision (Art. VII.) 
that ^- the ratification of the conventions 
of nine states shall be sufficient for the 
establishment of this constitution be- 
tween the states so ratifying the same." 

65. It was thus ratified by conventions 
composed of delegates appointed by the 
people of nine of the states, on the twen- 
ty-first day of June, A. D. 1788, on which 



THE UNITED STATES. 139 

day it became the fundamental law, and 
a new government comprising the said 
nine states sprang into existence ; the 
said states by the same act taking their 
leave of, or were severed from, the old 
confederation. 

66. The ratification by the people of 
Virginia and New York soon followed. 
That of North Carolina on the twenty- 
first day of November, A. D. 1789, and 
of Khode Island (wliich was not repre- 
sented in the convention at Philadelphia) 
on the twenty-ninth day of May, A. D. 
1790, on which day all doubt was re- 
moved, if any remained, as to the validity 
of the new constitution as it received on 
that day and previous the assent of the 
people of the entire Union by large ma- 
jorities in each of the states. (See Art. 
XIII confederation.) 

67. The history of the country under 
the confederation discloses the fact that 
its condition immediately following the 



140 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

seven years war for independence was 
most critical. From that date to the 
adoption of the constitution the fate of 
our great republic lay trembling in the 
balance. 

The abandonment of the compact and 
estabUsh7nent of a de facto government 
alone saved it from destruction, 

68. If further evidence is desired, that 
the new government was designed to be 
a strong government, a government hav- 
ing within itself the means of self-preser- 
vation and capable of ensuring a perpetu- 
ity to the Union, it will be found in the 
constitution itself and in the periodicals 
and records of that day. 

69. Washington in his Farewell Ad- 
dress to the people, states that '' a gov- 
ernment of as much vigor as is consistent 
with the perfect security of liberty is in- 
dispensable.''^ "Liberty itself will find 
in such a government^ with powers, prop- 
erly distributed and adjusted, its surest 



THE UNITED STATES. 141 

guardian." * * * ''To the efficacy 
and permanency of your Union a govern- 
ment for the whole is indispensable. " No 
alliance however strict between the parts 
can be an adequate substitute,''^ * * * 
"Sensible of this momentous truth you 
have improved upon your first essay ^ by 
the adoption of a constitiition of govern- 
ment^ better calculated than your former, 
for an intimate union, and for the effica- 
cious management of your common con- 
cerns." * * * "The unity of govern- 
ment which constitutes you one people is 
also dear to you. It is justly so ; for it 
is a main pillar in the edifice of our real 
independence ; the support of your 
tranquility at home, your peace abroad, 
of your safety, of your prosperity, of that 
very liberty you so highly prize." 

70. Jefferson in his inaugural in 1801, 
states as his belief that the general gov- 
ernment "is the strongest government on 
earth^'' and that its "preservation in its 



142 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

whole constitutional vigor is the sheet 
anchor of our peace at home and safety 
abroad." 

71. In these several quotations, and in 
the constitution itself, it will be seen that 
the words compact or confederation or 
their equivalents, as applied to the consti- 
tution and government are in no instance 
used. Washington expressly tells us 
that ''no alliance, however strict, can be 
an adequate substitute." 

71. Congress by resolution in 1789, 
requested the President to "recommend 
to the people of the United States a day of 
public thanksgiving and prayer to be ob- 
served by acknowledging with grateful 
hearts the many and signal favors of Al- 
mighty God, especially by affording them 
an opportunity peaceably to establish a 
constitution of government for their safety 
and ha^ppiness." 

72. In all the states, the true character 
of the new constitution was understood. 



THE UNITED STATES. 143 

The opposition it met with in its ratifica- 
tion by each, was arrayed expressly upon 
the ground that it created a de facto gov- 
ernment. In Virginia, in particular, the 
opposition to it was so great that the de- 
bate upon it was protracted through a 
period of twenty days. Patrick Henry, 
whose patriotism no one can doubt, but 
whose judgment failed him upon that oc- 
casion, opposed its ratification with all 
his great power of eloquence. ''What 
right," said he, "had the convention to 
say, ive the people of the United States ?^^ 
It created as he assumed a '' consolidated 
government^ It was ratified, notwith- 
standing, by a vote of 89 in favor, to 79 
against, and expressly upon the ground 
that the government created by it, was a 
government of and by the whole people 
of the United States as one people. 

73. Virginia at that day was distin- 
guished for the number and the wisdom 
of her great men. In her late deplorable 



144 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

backsliding she is, therefore, more in 
fault because sinning against greater 
light and knowledge, and she is reaping, 
and justly, if possible, a more fearful ret- 
ribution. 

74. The passage of certain state right 
resolutions drawn by Mr. Madison in the 
Virginia legislature, ten years after, a 
legislature not elected with a view to the 
action thus taken, in no respect weakens 
the position that the people of Virginia 
by their delegates in convention express- 
ly assembled for the purpose, placed the 
seal of their approval upon the constitu- 
tion as the fundamental law of a de facto 
government. 

75. In view of the circumstances under 
which those resolutions were passed, the 
conclusion is not an unreasonable one 
that they were especially designed to se- 
cure the support of a particular interest 
for Mr. Jefferson for the presidency. The 
real views of Mr. Jefferson upon the sub- 



THE UNITED STATES. 145 

ject were, beyond doubt, truly expressed 
in his inaugural as already quoted. 

76. Mr. Madison while he claims their 
authorship, exonerates both Jefferson and 
Monroe from any participation in the 
framing of those of Kenti^cky, which 
were but a reflection of those of Virginia, 
(see Mr. Madison's letter to J. C. Cabell, 
referred to in Duer's lectures, p. 413), 
and he expressly disclaimed in 1832 that 
there was any intention to give counten- 
ance to the monstrous doctrines of nulli- 
fication and secession which have their 
birth in those resolutions. 

77. The Virginia resolutions are enti- 
tled to no more weight than resolutions 
passed by the same number of respect- 
able citizens assembled for the purpose, 
and the same is true of those passed by 
the legislature of Kentucky. There was, 
at the time, but a feeble response to them 
from other states, but when leading men 
at the South began to calculate, or rather 

13 



146 THE GOYERNMENT OF 

miscalculate, the value of the union, and 
to conspire for its destruction, they 
sought in those resolutions for a color of 
right to secede, and Mr. Calhoun, having 
been foiled in his attempt to array South 
Carolina in open hostility to the general 
government, introduced, in 1838, a series 
of resolutions into congress which de- 
clared that the general government was 
but the common agent of the states, that 
it was substantially no government, but 
only a compact. 

78. When these resolutions were of- 
fered it was fully understood that any 
member voting against them could not 
receive the southern vote for the presi- 
dency. They were carried by the votes 
of many whose ambition it is not un- 
charitable to suppose overcame their con- 
victions of right, presenting, as history 
will hereafter declare, one of the most 
humiliating spectacles of human infirmity 
>^ver witnessed in any legislative body. 



THE UNITED STATES. 147 

79. It is obvious under a careful review 
of the history of the past, that our fathers 
supposed that under the new constitution 
they had instituted, what the necessities 
of the country imperatively required, 
viz., a government in the true and proper 
sense of the term; not a compact, or 
league of friendship, or alliance of sov- 
ereign states, but a government, to use 
the words of the preamble to the consti- 
tution, ''ordained and established" by 
"the people of the United States." A 
government based upon the consent of 
the governed, receiving its vitality and 
power direct from the whole " people of 
the United States," limited only in its 
powers and functions by the constitution, 
which, together with the laws of congress 
made in pursuance thereof, are declared 
in Art. VI to be " the supreme law of the 
landr 

79. A careful examination and consid- 
eration of all the facts and circumstances 



148 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

attending the formation of the new gov- 
ernment lead unavoidably to the conclu- 
sions to which we have arrived. Section 
I5 Art. I. of the Constitution says, th^t 
"all legislative powers herein granted 
shall be vested in a congress," &c. If it 
be asked, who are the grantors ? The 
preamble answers ''we the people of the 
United States, do ordain and establish 
this constitution," &c. Not we the states, 
or we the people of the several states, 
but, we the people of the entire United 
States acting as one nation or people. 

80. This reading is confirmed by Art. 
IX. of the amendments which says, that 
the powers thus granted, ''must not be 
construed to deny or disparage others re- 
tained by the people." Not, retained by 
the states, or by the people of the several 
states, but, by the people, the people of 
the entire Union. 

81. Again in Art.*X. of amendments, 
" the powers not delegated to the United 



THE UNITED STATES. 149 

States by the constitution, nor prohibited 
by it to the states are reserved to the 
states respectively or the people." Not 
to the people thereof^ or to the people of 
the several states, but to the people of 
the entire United States, the same people 
from whom the powers granted emanated 
and who ''ordained and established" the 
constitution. 

82. Washington, whose voice was more 
potential in the convention which framed 
the Constitution than that of any other 
individual, says in his Farewell address, 
that "the Constitution," alhiding to the 
Federal Constitution, ''which at any time 
exists, till changed by an explicit and 
authentic act of the ivhole people is sa- 
credly obligatory upon all." Thus clear- 
ly recognizing the people, the whole peo- 
ple as the source of power. 

83. The doctrine that the Constitution 
is simply a bond of union, a compact be- 

13* 



150 THE GOYERNMENT OF 

tweeii states, is untenable in every just 
view. 

A compact and a law are widely differ- 
ent in their nature. The one is but a 
promise, the other commands and is to 
be implicitly obeyed. 

The constitution is declared to be the 
" svprerae law.^^ It is '^ordained and es- 
tablished" as laws are ordained and es- 
tablished. No where is it called a com- 
pact. The old confederation was a com- 
pact, a ''friendly league," and so stated 
in one of its articles ; but there is no 
such statement in the constitution, a fact 
tvhich has logical/]/ all the force of aposi- 
tive assertion that the new government 
was not designed to be a league or a com- 
pact, 

84. This also is abundantly manifest 
in the independent exercise of the high- 
est and most important powers of gov- 
ernment, — powers which are made to 
bear directly upon individuals, showing 



THE UNITED STATES. 151 

conclusively that the government of the 
Union is a government of the people, and 
clothed by them with high and sovereign 
powers. 

85. In yielding, as far as was done in 
convention, to the selfish and unwise de- 
mands of the small states, there was no 
intention to weaken or impair the integ- 
rity of tlie general government as a de 
facto government. Whatever of practi- 
cal equality the states may have in the 
government by reason of state represen- 
tation in the Senate, (a feature forced 
from a reluctant majority,) the theoreti- 
cal idea is destroyed by the representa- 
tion in the House, where tlie powers of 
the states are unequal. 

86. The same is true in respect to the 
election of President, which, while it is 
defective as rendering possible the elec- 
tion of a minority President, does not 
recognize that equality in the states which 
is essential to the idea of sovereignty in 



152 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

the sense in which that word must be 
understood in connection with a com- 
pact. 

87. The states have just so much power 
as the constitution allows, and no more. 
That power, owing to the selfishness and 
jealousy and lack of forecast of some of 
the state delegations in the convention is 
not apportioned as it should be. There 
is just enough of leaning to the revolu- 
tionary doctrine of state rights as to 
afford material for demagogues to build 
up an unsound and mischievous theory, 
and in this view it may be said to have, 
to a certain extent, a hybrid character, 
but it has, it is, believed, enough of the 
blood and muscle of the lion in it, to 
prevent that of the hyena working its 
destruction. 

88. The doctrine that the general gov- 
ernment is the creature of the states, and 
is only a compact, is a doctrine that can 
not be true, as a principal object avow- 



THE UNITED STATES. 153 

edly aimed at can not possibly be effected 
under it. 

It is expressly stated in the pream- 
ble to the Constitution that the object 
is "to form a more perfect union.^^ A 
compact would not be a more perfect 
union. It would be a repetition of the 
folly of the confederation. It would not 
be a complete and perfect whole but a 
thing with open joints and weak points of 
connection where divisions and destruc- 
tion could be easily effected by the de- 
signing and unprincipled. 

89. To suppose that the framers of the 
Constitution, the men whose influence 
was the most potent in the convention, 
meant to give us a government whose 
only guaranty for permanence was the 
bond of equal sovereign states, is to sup- 
pose them wholly incompetent and un- 
qualified for the duty they were called 
upon to perform. It is to suppose them 
blind to the plainest dictates of reason 



164 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

and of common sense, and to the teach- 
ings of experience. It is to suppose 
them guilty of the supreme folly and 
madness of planting deep within the 
vitals of the government the seeds of its 
dissolution. 

90. The advocates of a compact urge 
in its support the fact that the title of the 
government is unchanged, being the same 
now as under the confederation. That 
the term "United States'' has the same 
meaning now as then, a union of states. 

The purpose of the articles of con- 
federation was to define the meaning of 
that term, and such also is the purpose 
of the constitution," and it has a meaning 
now as different from its meaning under 
the articles of confederation, as the con- 
stitution differs from those articles. The 
latter gives to the union the character 
simply of a league of friendship between 
states J the former is a fundamental law 



THE UNITED STATES. 155 

of government " ordained and established 
by the people of the United States." 

91. The theory of a compact can not 
well be reconciled with that clause of the 
Constitution which prohibits each state 
from entering, without the consent of 
Congress, '' into any agreement or com- 
pact with another state." The right to 
secede, which can only be claimed as a 
consequence of the theory of a compact, 
it is not reasonable to suppose, would be 
attempted to be practically enforced by a 
single state in a family of thirteen or 
more states. If secession is attempted 
by two or more states, this clause of the 
Constitution must be violated as a pre- 
liminary step. 

92. It would seem to have been in- 
serted to prevent any attempt at seces- 
sion, or to, forcibly withdraw from the 
Union. The founders of the govern- 
ment, it is probable, did not suppose that 
any considerable portion of the people of 



166 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

the Union would ever be so demented as 
to desire to leave the protection of the 
Union. They did not suppose that the 
people of the South would abandon the 
only power capable and willing under 
the requirements of the Constitution to 
shield them in the possession of an insti- 
tution obnoxious to the moral sense of 
the world ; much less that they would 
resort to force to accomplish such an 
object. 

93. Thus was constituted our national 
or federal government, — a government 
which was not the creature of the states 
as independent sovereignties, but a gov- 
ernment based upon that great and sacred 
principle, the consent of the governed as 
ascertained by conventions of the people 
and their delegates expressly called and 
assembled for the purpose, and so given 
that while the sense of the whole people 
of the United States was truly indicated, 
showed conclusively that it had the ap- 



THE UNITED STATES. 157 

proval of a majority of the people in each 
of the states ; an approval which was im- 
portant in view of the supposed independ- 
ent position of the states under the con- 
federation, a position which they were no 
longer to hold in the new order of things 
inaugurated by the establishment of the 
federal or general government. 

94. The constitution or fundamental 
law of the general government being 
thus placed upon a foundation as deep 
and broader than that of any state gov- 
ernment, and taking or rather withhold- 
ing from the latter the most important 
powers of sovereignty, required for its 
ratification the approval of the majority 
of the people in each state, as well as the 
majority in the whole United States. 

95. This it obtained in the only mode 
practicable, by the aid of the machinery 
of the state governments, the vote thus 
taken effecting the double object of a 
voluntary surrender or renunciation of 
14 



158 THE GOVERNMENT OP 

power, as far as such renunciation was 
necessary, by the people of the several 
states, and the bestowal of the power 
thus surrendered, by the whole people, 
upon the general government. 

96. It will be seen that neither the 
constitution, nor the general government 
formed under it, were the creatures of 
the states, as such, in their character of 
political sovereignties. The fact that the 
delegates who framed the constitution 
were appointed by the state authorities? 
does not in the least aifect the correct 
ness of the conclusion. Those authori- 
ties had no power under their several 
constitutions to create a central or gen- 
eral government, no power even to form 
a compact. Then, as now, the legisla- 
tures of the states possessed no power 
except what was expressly given in their 
written constitutions. At no time were 
they Avholly independent, (unless in the 
case of Rhode Island, which was the last 



THE UNITED STATES. 159 

to enter the new Union,) and for the de- 
gree of independence they enjoyed they 
were indebted to the protection afforded 
by the government of the Union. 

97. The legislative machinery in each 
state was used as the most convenient 
and proper means of assembling the peo- 
ple, or their delegates, in the respective 
states in convention, for the special pur- 
pose of voting upon the adoption of the 
constitution, and the new government to 
be created under it, and that was the 
only action, save the one of appointing 
delegates to frame it, that was taken by 
the state legislatures in relation to the 
constitution. 

98. It was the people, the whole peo- 
ple of the United States, acting as one 
nation, tliat first breathed into the con- 
stitution the breath of life, — a constitu- 
tion which has since become, if possible, 
more sacredly binding by the oatlis of 
individual citizens, in all sections, to up- 
hold and maintain it. 



160 THE GOVERNMENT OP 

99. The constitution of ^the general 
government became " the supreme law," 
direct from the source of power, — the 
same source from whence emanated in a 
more limited form, within the state 
boundaries, the state constitutions, which 
henceforward were never again to be 
claimed to be the supreme or highest law 
within their own limits, but were re- 
stricted and forbidden to do, and ren- 
dered incapable of doing, for ever after, 
what was exclusively and especially en- 
trusted to the greater power to perform. 

This is the only consistent view to be 
taken of the character of the new gov- 
ernment, and of the intentions of its 
founders, of those who had the most in- 
fluence in its formation. 

100. The assumption that it was de- 
signed to be simply a compact, a friendly 
league, after the experience of the con- 
federation, is in the highest degree de- 
rogatory to the good sense and patriot- 



THE UNITED STATES. 161 

ism of the illustrious men through whose 
instrumentality it was established. They 
meant to give the country, to use the 
words of Jefferson in his first inaugural, 
" the strongest government on earth," — 
not a rope of sand to be torn asunder by 
state or individual or sectional jealousies 
and rivalries. 

101. As already stated, the constitu- 
tion received the assent of the people in 
three-fourths of the states on the twenty- 
first day of June, A. D. 1788. It was on 
that day, " ordained and established" as 
the fundamental law of the new Union, 
and it was on that day that the Republic 
of the United States tvas born. 

102. The oppressed colonies of Great 
Britain declared their independence of 
the mother country on the fourth day of 
July, A. D. 1776. That was a great event 
in history, but the ability to make good 
that declaration, and to maintain their 
independence, and realize the greater 

14* 



162 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

glory of erecting for themselves a supe- 
rior form of government, remained to be 
demonstrated. It was demonstrated by 
great trials and sufferings and heroic sac- 
rifices extending through a period of 
nearly eight years, and a further effort 
to secure the most perfect government 
practicable, which was not effected until 
the day named above, when the crown- 
ing event in our history was reached, in 
the gift to the world by a free people^ of 
the first civil government founded in the 
immutable principles of justice and of hu- 
man rights^ the first christian government 
framed in the spirit of that great law of 
human brotherhood enjoined by the Sav- 
iour^ thus giving to that day an import- 
ance in the memory of the past not trans- 
cended by any other since the day when 
by the sacrifice of the Cross humanity 
was lifted from the dust and darkness of 
its fallen condition, to the light and the 
hope of heaven. 



THE UNITED STATES. 163 

103. Although the government of the 
United States, under the present Consti- 
tution, was a great improvement upon 
former systems, an immense stride in the 
better direction, toward the great end of 
securing the best form, a form in har- 
mony with the true law of man's being, 
and the will of his Creator ; yet, by rea- 
son of the many difficulties attending its 
formation, it is not free from defects. 

104. These defects should be under- 
stood by every citizen, and be corrected 
in the mode prescribed in the constitu- 
tion, at the earliest moment possible, 
that they may not be made, for the rea- 
son that injustice is done, the pretext for 
resistance or the cause of a bitter sec- 
tional feeling which may at some future 
day endanger the peace of the country. 

Perhaps the most prominent of these 
defects is the manner in which the high- 
est legislative body, the Senate, is con- 
stituted. 



164 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

105. In the arrangement of the repre- 
sentation, justice and good brotherhood 
demand that it should correspond with 
or be a correct measure of the popula- 
tion. 

This rule is imperative. To deviate 
from it is to create a privileged commu- 
nity, and, by consequence, to deprive a 
portion of their just rights. 

106. A rule so just, and so indispensa- 
ble in arranging the details of a govern- 
ment which is designed to be permanent, 
was not adhered to in the organization 
of the Senate. That body is formed by 
two members from each state, without 
regard to population. In this particular 
there was no improvement upon the arti- 
cles of confederation. The vote of Del- 
aware in the Senate of the United States, 
with its white population of less than 
100,000, is as potent as the vote of New 
York, with its population of four mill- 
ions. 



THE UNITED STATES. 165 

107. It is matter of history that the 
legislature of Pelaware, in the act ap- 
pointing delegates to the convention 
which framed the constitution, instruct- 
ed those delegates to insist that each 
state should have an equal vote in the 
general congress. 

This feature was adhered to with the 
greatest pertinacity by the small states 
in the convention. Delaware threatened, 
if it was not adopted, to '^take a foreign 
power by the hand ;" and Mr. Martin of 
Maryland declared that " each state must 
have an equal vote, or the business of the 
convention was at an end.'' 

Dr. Franklin stated that the vote by 
states was submitted to in the confedera- 
tion under a conviction of its injustice, 
and with others of the ablest men in the 
convention opposed its adoption in the 
new constitution. In a vote by states — 
and the votes in the convention were all 
thus taken — the majority were also op- 
posed. 



166 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

108. The feelings of the members in 
the convention were aroused by it to a 
degree which threatened ii§ dissolution. 
As a last effort for reconciliation, a com- 
mittee was appointed, who, at the expira- 
tion of three days, reported in favor of 
confining the state representation to the 
Senate, the House of Representatives to 
be organized on the basis of population. 
This was the plan adopted, thus practi- 
cally, to a certain extent, making Con- 
gress the creature of the states, since no 
bill can become a law except by the ap- 
proval of the Senate. It was adopted, 
not as being just or proper, but as a ne- 
cessity, — the smaller states, to use the 
words of Mr. Grayson of Virginia, '^gain- 
ing their point." 

109. To give to a minority power equal 
to the majority, is a violation of the prin- 
ciple of equal rights. The majority prin- 
ciple among equals, is the only just prin- 
ciple. The idea that minorities should 



THE UNITED STATES. 167 

■ have greater power relatively, to protect 
them from majorities, is fallacious. 

Majorities are not as likely to oppress 
as minorities, and if oppression must be, 
it is quite as well that the few should 
suffer, rather than the many. Superior 
or equal power in the hands of a few con- 
stitutes an aristocracy, or an oligarchy, 
and in those of an individual, a despot- 
ism. 

110. The doctrine of equal rights 
among equals^ and the majority 'principle^ 
are main pillars in the edifice of a repub- 
lican government^ and our national gov- 
ernment is weak and tlie system defect- 
ive in those particulars in which, in the 
fundamental and other laws, there is a 
departure from those great principles. 

111. The smaller states, in the framing 
of the constitution, in order to perpetu- 
ate their monopoly of power, caused to 
be inserted a provision, the only one of 
the kind in that instrument, \Yhich pre. 



168 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

eludes the possibility of correcting this • 
most unjust feature, except by the con- 
sent of all the states. 

112. It is a most unfortunate provis- 
ion, and the sooner it is wiped from the 
face of the constitution, by the consent 
of all the states, the better. It is partic- 
ularly unfortunate that, because of it, 
the mode provided for amending defects 
in the constitution can not be applied to 
the greatest of its defects. 

113. As yet no serious mischief has re- 
sulted from it, but the time will come 
when, unless rectified, it will more surely 
rend asunder these states than any effort 
now making for that purpose. 

The trial will come when it shall be seen 
that the states upon the Atlantic slope have 
double the representation in the govern- 
ment, in proportion to population, com- 
pared with the states in the valley of the 
Mississippi and the slope of the Pacific. 
At present that representation is very 



THE UNITED STATES. 169 

nearly, as it should be, according to popu- 
lation, but the rapid growth of the West 
will soon create a disparity. 

114. The West in a contest of this de- 
scription w^ill have justice and the physical 
power on its side, which the South in the 
present contest have not, with a commer- 
cial bond, owing to sameness of latitude 
and products, less effective as a preventive 
to a rupture, than obtains between the 
North and the South. The result can 
easily be imagined, and can only be pre- 
vented by timely action on the part of the 
people of all of the states, and especially 
of those smaller ones which hold power 
unjustly, and whose consent is required by 
the constitution. Action which should be 
taken as soon as our present troubles are 
ended, and before the angry passions of 
any particular section are again aroused. 

115. Let us view this subject in another 
light. Let us suppose our entire country 
from the great lakes to the Mexican gulf, 

15 



170 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, to be 
without a government, and that the people 
with their present intelligence are about 
to frame one. 

116. Would they not begin by institut- 
ing a national government, framing and 
adopting a constitution defining its pow- 
ers, giving to it only such powers as it is 
proper for a general government to pos- 
sess, and a full and complete supremacy 
within its allotted sphere? Having done 
this, would they not then divide the coun- 
try into convenient and suitable depart- 
ments or states, and sub divide these into 
smaller municipalities, to be governed each 
in those matters not coming properly un- 
der the cognizance of the general govern- 
ment by their own local or municipal laws ? 
and in doing all this, would they not be 
scrupulously careful to give to each prin- 
cipal division a representation in the gen- 
eral government corresponding to its pop- 
ulation, and the same in respect to the 



THE UNITED STATES. 171 

representation of tlie smaller municipali- 
ties in the higlier divisions? 

117. No other plan could be adopted. 
The gross absurdity and injustice of any 
other would be so manifest that it would 
meet with instant rejection. The smaller 
and loeaker slates are the most interested 
in maintaining the gejieral government of 
the country, and should be foremost in the 
removal of those causes which endanger 
its existence. The question of equality of 
representation is more replete with danger 
to the republic than any other, and atten- 
tion can not be too seriously turned to- 
wards it. Where the great doctrine of 
equal rights is so clearly and plainly vio- 
lated, and that to an oppressive degree as 
in the case of the senatorial representation, 
there is no safety, except in a prompt and 
full correction, as far as practicable, of the 
evil. 

118. Differing so greatly, as does the 
population of the several states in amount, 



172 THE GOVERNMENT OP 

the evil can not be fully corrected without 
enlarging the number in the senate to an 
inconvenient degree, unless two or more 
of the smaller states can be induced to 
unite in a representation in that body. 

119. Perhaps the nearest approach 
which it is at present practicable to make 
to a just representation of all parts of the 
country in the senate, is to give to each 
state, however small, one senator, and to 
the others one for each million and fraction 
of a million of their populations. 

This would give to the senate some fifty 
members at the present time, (1864,) and 
nearly double that number when the pop- 
ulation of the Union shall be doubled. If 
the representatives from Rhode Island or 
Delaware will propose a change of this de- 
scription in Congress, to be seconded by 
those of Maryland, the act will redound 
greatly to the credit of those states, and 
serve to clear the history of their present 
connection with the Union from the cloud 
that hangs over it. 



THE UNITED STATES. 173 

120. Only that form of government 
which is the most just is the most likely to 
endure. We should bear constantly in 
mind this truth, and wherever our present 
system differs, from the most perfect iu 
form, amendment should be made, but 
only in the mode pointed out by the con- 
stitution itself, and it should be done with- 
out unnecessary delay. 

121. Amendments to the constitution 
must, by Art. V., originate with Congress, 
or the legislatures of three-fourths of the 
states, and be ratified by the people, or the 
legislatures of three-fourths of the states. 
This last provision is wrong, as it is a de- 
parture from the basis iipon which the con- 
stitution itself was established and became 
the supreme law. Amendments when 
adopted become integral parts of the con- 
stitution, and should derive their validity 
from the same source, and in the same 
manner as the constitution itself. 

This inconsistency is explainable only 



174 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

by the fact of the undue influence of the 
states, as such, in framing that instrument. 

122. Here we may remark that the 
power given to three-fourths of the states 
thus to change or invalidate by amend- 
ments to the federal constitution the fun- 
damental laws of a state, is a surrender to 
that extent of whatever sovereignty the 
states may have possessed at the time of 
framing the constitution. ^ 

123. The mode provided for designating 
electors of president and vice-president is 
exceptionable, as it is a departure from the 
doctrine of equal rights, by giving to the 
smaller states an undue influence, it being 
provided that the members of the electoral 
college from each state shall be equal in 
number to the senators and representatives 
united. Contrary to the intentions of the 
framers of the constitution the electors 
have never, it is believed, exercised a dis- 
cretion in casting their votes, but have in 
every instance conformed to the nomina- 



THE UNITED STATES. 175 

tions of the political party to which they 
belonged. 

124. With respect to the qualifications 
of candidates for president and vice-presi- 
dent the minimum age can, it is believed, 
be advantageously increased at least ten 
years, viz. : from thirty-five to forty-five 
years, and the same in respect to senators 
and representatives. 

Forty, and thirty-five years, is not too 
low a limit for the latter. It is a ques- 
tion of importance whether the Presiden- 
tial term of service may not be advan- 
tageously increased, and it is worthy of 
consideration also, whether some check 
other than now exists, may not be put 
upon the nominations of men for the 
highest offices, because of their supposed 
availability, without regard to their quali- 
fications. The country needs its most 
experienced, its most trustworthy and 
most reliable men in the highest posi- 
tions of trust, and a better guaranty will 



176 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

be afforded that such will be selected, if 
the change suggested is made. 

125. This subject of a choice of per- 
sons to fill the places of trust and power 
in the government, is one demanding the 
most serious consideration. The expe- 
rience of the past clearly shows that 
without due vigilance, and attention to 
their duty in this respect, on the part of 
the electors and suitable amendment of 
our fundamental and other laws, state 
and national, we can not long hope to 
enjoy the blessing of a free government. 
It is not to be denied that the terrible 
war now waging in our midst, is the re- 
sult, in a great degree, of a neglect of 
this duty, in all parts of our land. No 
one can have visited our halls of legisla- 
tion for the last twenty years, without 
observing that a large portion of those 
who are entrusted with the making of 
our laws, are either incapable or unwor- 
thy of the trust reposed in them, — unfit 



THE UNITED STATES. 177 

to be the law-makers and administrators 
of the government of a great and free 
people. As sure as that every effect is 
the result of an adequate cause, just so 
sure must we reform in this respect, or 
the days of the nation will be as a tale 
that is told. 

126. To lessen in some degree the 
evils resulting from the manner in which 
nominations are now made, and elections 
to office effected, it is proposed that the 
electors in a given district or state, be 
separated according to age into three 
equal classes. By referring to the cen- 
sus returns it will be seen that, when the 
suffrage is confined to males of the age 
of 21 years and over, the number in each 
class will be the same, or nearly so, if the 
first class embraces all of the age * of 
twenty-one and under twenty-nine years ; 
the second class, all of the age of twenty- 
nine, and under forty-two years ; and the 
third class, all of forty-two years of age 



178 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

and over. If the suffrage is limited to 
the heads of families, the two last periods 
will be somewhat varied. 

127. Each of these equal classes to 
elect from its members the same number 
of delegates, whose duty it shall be, in 
conjunction with the delegates from the 
other classes, to fill, by ballot, the vacan- 
cies to be supplied. 

The delegates in balloting to be con- 
fined to the names voted for upon the 
first ballot. If the persons voted for at 
any ballot exceed the vacancies to be 
filled, the person having the least num- 
ber of votes to be dropped from the list 
of candidates. If there are two or more 
. thus situated, having an equal number of 
votes, the balloting to be repeated, and, 
if with a similar result, then all thus situ- 
ated to be dropped from the list of can- 
didates, unless a choice is likely to be 
defeated, in which case, the selection from 



THE UNITED STxVTES. 

those having an equal number of votes 
must be made by lot. 

Ill this manner if the delegates or 
names presented are not too numerous, 
a selection is sure to be made within a. 
reasonable time. 

128. The several classes of electors 
may, with propriety, meet on different 
days, near to each other, to elect their 
delegates. Those who are selected to 
fill the highest offices of President, Vice- 
President, and United States Senators, 
should be taken wholly from the third 
class, or those over the age of forty-two. 
Representatives in Congress, and govern- 
ors of states, may be taken from the sec- 
ond and third classes. All other civil 
officers to be taken from eitlier of the 
three chisses. 

129. The great object to be attained 
under any system, is to give to all, who 
possess the right, a just influence in the 
government, and secure, at the same time, 



180 THE GOYERNMENT OF 

the services of the best men for its ad- 
ministration ; a result not attained with 
sufficient nearness by any system hitherto 
adopted. The horizontal division of the 
electors into three classes or estates, as 
proposed, will lessen the danger of sec- 
tional divisions ; avoids the odious fea- 
tures of a division based upon property 
or lineage, and offers a better guaranty 
that the best men will be selected for 
office. 

130. That portion of the constitution 
which permitted the introduction into 
the country of persons from Africa, it is 
now seen, was an error. It was, to use 
a mild phrase, a great mistake to permit 
the forcible importation of men and 
women for purposes of gain, even for a 
limited period. 

Being avowedly wrong after the year 
1808, it was equally wrong prior to that 
date. The responsibility of this feature 
of the constitution rests as heavily upon 



# 

THE UNITED STATES:. 181 

the Eastern as upon any other portion of 
the Union. 

131. At the period of the formation 
of the constitution, African slavery was 
viewed in all sections of the Union as a 
great and serious evil, and had the alter- 
native been presented of its perpetuity 
or immediate abolition, but few voices 
would probably have been raised in favor 
of its continuance. The ordinance of 
1787, framed by Mr. Jefferson, and passed 
by Congress by nearly an unanimous 
vote, excluding African slavery from the 
vast region north and west of the Ohio 
river, where our territorial possessions 
then lay, is proof conclusive that such 
would have been the result. 

132. It was indeed a fatal mistake, as 
we of the present day now realize in the 
most painful manner, to recognize, even 
indirectly, in arranging the frame work 
of a government designed to be perma- 
nent, an institution which is the offspring 

16 



182 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

of the baser passions of our nature, and 
which by first demoralizing inevitably 
destroys. 

133. A little reflection upon the great 
truth that civil government is a divine 
institution, that those who administer it 
are God's ministers, brings with it the 
conviction that any compromise of the 
right, any departure from the great prin- 
ciples of truth and justice, must in time 
be visited with the just penalty which fol- 
lows the violation of the laws of God. 

134. African slavery obtained its foot- 
hold in our country while we were yet 
colonies of Great Britain. It prevailed 
in nearly every state of the Union, and 
northern advocates and northern votes 
were not wanting in favor of its recogni- 
tion to the extent allowed in the consti- 
tution. 

135. When, however, after the lapse 
of a few years, the inventions of Watt, 
of Arkwright, and of Whitney, and oth- 



THE UNITED STATES. 183 

ers, gave to the article of cotton the 
character of what some were pleased to 
term a king among staples, and slav.e la- 
bor became valuable, and remunerative 
to an extraordinary degree, the views of 
very many persons in the cotton produ- 
cing states, and in those states where 
slaves could be advantageously bred for 
the market, were changed, and system- 
atic efforts were adopted, which in the 
end were successful, in effecting a general 
change in public sentiment in the states 
of the south, favorable to the rightful- 
ness and the continuance of the institu- 
tion, and, to some extent, in those of the 
north. 

136. Those who were mainly instru- 
mental in bringing about this change, 
there is reason to believe, early came to 
the conclusion that African slavery could 
not be permanently and certainly sus- 
tained under a republican government. 
Hence measures were devised and adopt- 



184 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

ed calculated to lead to the withdrawal 
from the Union of the class of states in- 
terested in African slavery. The princi- 
pal of these measures consisted in an at- 
tempted gross perversion of the constitu- 
tion by declaring the national govern- 
ment to be only a compact, a league of 
friendship, the common agent simply of 
the states. It was assumed that the 
states (which in truth never had an ex- 
istence as independent sovereignties) 
were the only governments proper in the 
country, a perversion which has found 
its natural culmination in the present re- 
volt and rebellion, and in placing the 
people of the slaveholding states where 
they now stand, with hands red and drip- 
ping with fraticidal blood, in armed re- 
sistance to the regularly constituted au- 
thorities of the land. 

137. The constitution is not only justly 
open to criticism in the particulars to 
which attention has been directed, but 



THE UNITED STATES. 185 

there are defects of omission, which 
should not be overlooked ; defects which 
are mainly attributable to state pride, and 
state jealousy, and which are both un- 
reasonable and unfavorable to a just 
solution of the great problem of free 
government. Some of its more impor- 
tant provisions liave not been duly en- 
forced, and the states, moreover, have 
assumed to exercise powers which clearly 
belong to the higher power of the coun- 
try. 

138. The control, for instance, of the 
national government over the currency 
of the country is, under the constitution, 
supreme, and the states are distinctly 
prohibited from emitting bills of credit. 
But the states have authorized the emis- 
sion of such bills by banking institutions 
to an extent which has at times flooded 
portions of the country with a vitiated 
currency, and have given them the pro- 
tection of law when called upon to re- 
16* 



186 THE GOYERNMENT OF 

deem their emissions with coin. This 
evil is noAY, so far as regards the uncon- 
stitutional action of the states, likely to 
be corrected altogether by the necessity 
which compels the general government 
to supply with its own paper the circula- 
tion of the country. 

139. The evils which the country has 
at times experienced from state banking 
institutions have proceeded almost solely 
from their ability, by independent action, 
to increase or lessen at will the money 
circulation of the country. As banking 
institutions proper, they have conferred 
not only the great benefits derived from 
corporations generally, as already stated, 
but they have had a beneficial influence 
in times of financial panics, in mitigating 
their severity, by maintaining the rate of 
interest within reasonable limits. 

140. It is true that, at such times, a 
few" have, in many instances, been suc- 
cessful borrowers from the banks, to the 



THE UNITED STATES. 187 

exclusion of more worthy applicants, but 
when it is remembered how much of the 
capital of the country is concentrated in 
such institutions, and that they are 
forced, in making loans, to conform to 
the rate of usance established by law, it 
will be seen that they are largely instru- 
mental, in times of financial revulsions, 
in saving the country from much pecun- 
iary distress. 

141. Charters of incorporation, under 
our present system, have, with but few 
exceptions, been granted by the state 
governments. These charters possess 
general features which are, or should 
be, alike in all. Hence they should be 
the subject of legislation, or of approval 
by the general government, leaving to 
the state governments to supply such 
portions, only, as may be varied to suit 
local requirements. 

142. Very much of the legislation which 
is now done by the states, may more prop- 



188 THE GOVERNMENT OP 

erly and advantageously be done by the 
general government, or be made subject 
to its approval, and the necessity for a 
change of this character is becoming ev- 
ery day more apparent. 

The rapidity and cheapness of inter- 
communication has so combined and 
woven into one web, as it were, the busi- 
ness of the whole country, that greater 
uniformity in the laws in the several 
states is becoming a greater necessity 
than heretofore, an uniformity which can 
only be secured through the instrument- 
ality of the general government. 

143. The persistent judicious exercise, 
by the general government, of the powers 
which pertain to it, is necessary to its life 
and permanence, and to the best good 
and welfare of the whole people. In so 
slight a degree has the action of the gen- 
eral government been felt by the people 
of the states, during the last fifty years 
of peace with other nations, that the im- 



THE UNITED STATES. 189 

pressioii seems to have obtained in the 
minds of many, that the national govern- 
ment is comparatively of inferior or sec- 
ondary importance in the civilpoHty of the 
country, and that the state govermnents 
are adequate to the performance of all the 
needful functions of government. This 
erroneous impression should be corrected, 
and the conviction strengthened that the 
unyielding exercise, on the part of the 
general government, of its appropriate 
powers, is essential to the welfare of all 
under its influence. 

1-14. The disposition to undervalue the 
importance of the general government 
has been indulged in, and the doctrine 
of state rights and state independence 
has been cherished to that inordinate de- 
gree, as to lead to the present formidable 
rebellion. 

145. The general government, in all of 
our past history, has not only not in any 
instance encroached upon the rights of 



190 THE GOVERNMENT OP 

the states, but it has been instrumental 
in several instances towards the mainte- 
nance of the powers and authorities of 
the states. The insurrections in Massa- 
chusetts and Pennsylvania, in Rhode Isl- 
and, and in New York and Virginia, are 
cases in point. 

It has been instrumental in suppressing 
or preventing hostilities between states, 
as in the controversy between Ohio and 
Michigan, and in the adjustment of other 
difficulties of a serious nature. 

146. By its power it accomplished the 
independence of the states of the Union, 
in the first war with England, and pro- 
tected them successfully in that inde- 
pendence in the war of 1812. At no 
period in their history have the states of 
the Union been, strictly speaking, sover- 
eign and independent. At the time of 
their separation by treaty from England, 
they were already under the government 
of an Union which was declared to be 
perpetual. 



THE UNITED STATES. 191 

147. The general government has given 
to the Union the Floridas and the vast 
territory between the Mississippi and the 
Pacific. It has protected the commerce 
of the Union in every sea, and maintained 
the rights of its citizens in every clime. 

148. Our country under our good gov- 
ernment has been the asylum and the 
refuge of the oppressed and down-trod- 
den of all nations for the last eighty 
years, during which period no less than 
ten millions of souls have come to our 
shores from all nations and climes, and 
found here homes of comfort and peace. 

Under its benign influence the repub 
lie lias attained the front rank of the 
nations of the earth, and our country 
and its people have enjoyed a degree of 
prosperity unexampled in history. 

Amid all this great prosperity, and 
without cause, traitors from among us, 
traitors to their country and to human- 
ity, have conspired to destroy our good 



192 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

government, have conspired to degrade 
and humiliate us in the eyes of the world. 
The government is now engaged in de- 
fending itself from these treasonable as- 
saults upon its life. 

149. The result will determine whether 
we are indeed one people ; — whether the 
Constitution of the United States is the 
supreme lain of the land; — whether our 
general government is in truth a de facto 
government, possessing the ability to de- 
fend itself from enemies without and foes 
within ; or whether it is only a compact, 
a friendly league, or an alliance, to be 
broken, destroyed, or mutilated, accord- 
ing as interest, passion, or caprice shall 
instigate those who owe allegiance, and 
obedience, and fidelity, to it. 

160. That the present conflict will 
demonstrate the ability of the govern- 
ment to sustain itself, is not doubted ; 
but to guard against the recurrence of a 
similar great evil in future, we must re- 



THE UNITED STATES. 193 

vise and correct our opinions upon the 
question of state sovereignty and state 
rights, as compared with the reasonable 
and proper and necessary powers of the 
general government. 

151. We shall be more disposed, here- 
after, it is believed, in awarding credit to 
our Fathers for their labors and efforts in 
the cause of good government, to be more 
particularly grateful to the men, like 
Washington and Franklin, and others, 
through whose influence and forecast, ' 
especially, our country derived the great 
blessing of a de facto national govern- 
ment. 

152. Although acquisitions of territory 
by the United States have been made, 
probably to a greater extent than was 
anticipated by the framers of the Consti- 
tution, yet it is not easy to explain the 
reason for the slight notice the territories 
received in that instrument. 

It certainly would have been better if 
17 



194 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

the precise political relation of the people 
of the territories to the government of 
the Union had been more clearly stated. 

153. The omission to do this has been 
to a very considerable degree the proxi- 
mate cause of our present national difB- 
culties. 

It is true that the Constitution says, 
very plainly, that " Congress shall have 
power to dispose of and make all needful 
rules and regulations respecting the ter- 
ritory or other property belonging to the 
United States." 

154. This clause was at first construed 
as giving to Congress the power to insti- 
tute governments in the territories, and 
Congress acted upon this view of the 
subject. 

How it could have been so construed 
it is not easy to perceive, since the clause 
is evidently confined to the protection of 
the property interest of the people of the 
United States in the domain of the ter- 
ritories. 



THE UNITED STATES, 195 

155. Subsequently this doctrine, which 
met with no party opposition, was repu- 
diated by the Supreme Court of the Uni- 
ted States, which body could find no 
other ground on which to base the power 
in question, but the dangerous one of 
" inevitable necessity." 

156. An alternative of this character 
is most unfortunate, and particularly so 
as the inevitable necessity for Congress to 
interpose in the manner stated is not by 
any means apparent. Neither is it evi- 
dent that the necessity, if it existed, just- 
ified the rule adopted by Congress, that 
the people of a territory are not entitled 
to determine for themselves the question 
of African servitude, within their own 
limits, the moment they are in the enjoy- 
ment of an organized government, of 
whatever form, or however established, — 
a rule without warrant in the letter of 
the Constitution, and in open violation 
of its spirit. 



196 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

157. That Congress has assumed pow- 
ers on the subject, not distmctly con- 
ferred, there can be no doubt, and hence 
it would have been far better had the 
Constitution been more explicit upon the 
subject of the political rights and powers 
of the people of the territories. 

158. In the administration of justice, 
the Constitution gives to Congress the 
sole power to designate how the courts 
of the United States shall be established. 
This is not, perhaps, objectionable as it 
regards the inferior courts, but in respect 
to the supreme court, that august body 
whose duty it is to determine and inter- 
pret the Constitution itself, the question 
may be asked, whether a different pro- 
vision for its organization could not have 
been made, that would more certainly 
have secured, in its composition, the 
ablest and the best men of the country, 
men who would be elevated to that high 
trust free from any undue influence of 
sect or party. 



THE UNITED STATES. 197 

159. In criminal cases the Constitution 
secures to the accused the right of trial 
by jury, and in civil cases the same right, 
where the value in controversy exceeds 
twenty dollars. This value may now, it 
is conceived, very properly be raised to 
say one hundred dollars. 

160. Tliis right of trial by jury, being 
an important feature in the system of the 
country from whence our own has been 
mainly derived, has been deemed import- 
ant, but the question is now being asked 
by many, whether a trial by one's own 
peers, which was the first idea of a jury, 
does not imply a state of society which 
does not obtain in a country where polit- 
ical equality is a cardinal principle, and 
whether the administration of justice will 
not be more completely and certainly se- 
cured, in all cases, by a properly consti- 
tuted judiciary. 

161. The question may also be asked, 
whether some of the machinery now em- 

17* 



198 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

ployed in efforts to attain the' ends of 
justice, may not be simplified by the es- 
tablishment of tribunals of conciliation^ 
which in very many cases will lessen the 
cost of proceedings, now so oppressive in 
many of the states. 

162. An organic union of the church 
with the state, under the Constitution, is 
impossible, and Congress can " make no 
law respecting the establishment of re- 
ligion, or prohibiting the free exercise 
thereof." This is right ; but the absence 
of any recognition of an overruling Prov- 
idence, and of any express power enabling 
Congress or the Executive authoritatively 
to designate proper days for public fast- 
ing and humiliation or thanksgiving, and 
to enforce their respectful observance by 
abstinence from servile labor, is incon- 
sistent with the divine character of civil 
government and man's dependence upon 
and the gratitude due to a beneficent 
Creator. In this particular the Consti- 



THE UNITED STATES. 199 

tution should bo amended, and a clause 
may also with propriety be added, declar- 
atory of the mode of reckoning time from 
the Christian era, in accordance with the 
practice of the civilized nations. 

16o. The duty of the priesthood upon 
occasions of the character above named is 
plain. When an entire people manifest 
through their rulers a desire, from any 
cause, to approach in a public manner the 
throne of the Highest, their aid should be 
invoked and promptly rendered, to the 
neglect, if necessary, of the stated observ- 
ances of the organization to which they 
may belong; and wherever the liturgical 
system is adopted suitable forms should be 
provided, and ready for use upon such oc- 
casions. 

164. It is also in like manner the duty 
of the priesthood to supplicate on all public 
occasions in behalf of their congregations 
the blessing of the Almighty upon all who 
are in authority or in the service of the 



2Q0 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

country, that they may in the performance 
of their duties be under His guidance; 
may do nothing inconsistent with His laws, 
inconsistent with justice and the sacred 
obligations of human brotherhood. 

165. The question as to how far a man's 
religious opinions should affect his qualifi- 
cations for office is one of importance. 
The mind that is too feeble or too illy con- 
stituted to comprehend the existence of a 
creator and upholder of all things, whose 
attributes are those of the highest wisdom 
and goodness, is unfit for any trust or re- 
sponsibility at the hands of an intelligent 
constituency. Those who discern in the 
Christian system evidence of its divine 
character, and the importance to mankind 
of the truths it unfolds, can not, as a gen- 
eral rule, conscientiously be instrumental 
in elevating to offices of trust individuals 
who have no such belief; but the duty of 
the true Christian in this respect should 
not be performed in any narrow spirit of 



THE UNITED STATES. 201 

sectarism. Due allowance should in all 
cases be made for honest differences of 
opinion in those particulars which are not 
of vital importance. 

166. The constitution provides that 
" the United States shall guaranty to every 
state in the Union a republican form of 
governmentj" and it provides also that 
"new states may be admitted by the Con- 
gress into this Union." The first of these 
provisions does not favor the doctrine of 
state sovereignty as maintained by extrem- 
ists of the state-right school, and might be 
adduced as additional evidence of the cor- 
rectness of our conclusions upon that sub- 
ject. It is tlie duty of Congress to admit 
into the Union only such states as have 
constitutions of the republican form, in 
liarmony with the constitution of the 
United States. The constitution of every 
new state liaving tlius to pass the ordeal of 
Congress, any alteration or amendment 
subsequently made should pass the same 



202 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

ordeal, and this applies to the constitutions 
of the original states which have been 
framed and adopted since the formation of 
the Union. It is true that this test would 
not in any instance have affected the re- 
sult, but the neglect of it may lead to mis- 
understandings and trouble in the future. 
167. More might be said in review of 
our present constitution and of the action 
of the general government under it, but 
we forbear longer to occupy the time of 
the reader. 

We can not, however, before concluding, 
refrain from recurring to the importance 
of a due consideration of the family insti- 
tution in the organization and administra- 
tion of government. For want of this 
due consideration all efforts heretofore 
made for the establishment of a right gov- 
ernment have failed. Success perfect and 
permanent can not be attained so long as 
the public mind is in darkness upon the 
subject. 



THE UNITED STATES. 203 

168. If the conclusions upon this sub- 
ject, arrived at in our first number, are 
logical in their character, as we believe 
them to be, then mankind have yet to learn 
that with the heads of families, as a class, 
rests the supreme power of a state — that 
this power is especially delegated and en- 
trusted to them by the Almighty — that as 
a class, and individually, they must not 
neglect its exercise, but must use it to the 
best of their knowledge and ability for the 
best good of the race, and especially for 
the improvement of the homes of the peo- 
ple, and their multiplication, and in giving 
to them, as far as practicable, an equality 
of comforts and enjoyments. 

169. If this duty is neglected all efforts 
to establish right and stable government 
and permanently to improve the social 
condition of men must prove futile. 

Under a neglect of this duty a nation 
may flourish, or seem to flourish, for a 
time, but the fatal consequences of neg- 



204 THE GOVERNMENT OF 

lect will eventually become manifest. 
The mildew and the blight will gather 
upon it, and decay and dissolution follow. 
Wherever this great and sacred duty is 
practically ignored by any nation, the 
shadow of the destroying angel may be 
said already to rest upon it. This truth 
should sink deep into the minds and 
hearts of all. 

170. Our great and good government, 
a government which, notwithstanding the 
defects in its organization, is the best, the 
most just, the most beneficent ever estab- 
lished, is now being subjected to the sever- 
est test possible. We are now practically 
solving the great question of its true char- 
acter — whether it is simply a compact, a 
friendly league, an alliance, or a de facto 
government — whether what we term our 
national government is still in the primi- 
tive, the feeble, the cartilaginous condition, 
if we may so term it, of the old confeder- 
ation, or, whether, upon the adoption of 



THE UNITED STATES. 205 

the constitution, it passed into a newer, 
into a higher, into a more perfect form, 
into a more perfect organism, an organism 
vertebrated and funiculated, and capable 
in all respects of self-support. 

171. This is the question now being 
solved by the greatest enginery of war and 
the marshalling of armed hosts, such as 
the earth has never before witnessed. If 
we are true to ourselves, true to the mem- 
ories of our fathers, and above all, true to 
our obligations of duty to our fellow-men, 
and true to Him who is the source of all 
good, the result can not be doubtful. 
Right and superior power must prevail. 
He who rides on the whirlwind and directs 
the storm will give to us the blessed calm 
of a lasting peace under a brighter sky 
than has ever yet canopied our glorious 
Union. 

172. The rebellious states will again 
take their position under the protecting 

wing of that government which, in past 

18 



206 THE GOVERNMENT OP 

time, has conferred* upon them so many 
blessings, and under which they grew rich 
and powerful to a degree unexampled in 
the history of nations. Upon the return 
of the people of those states, who are now 
in armed rebellion, to their allegiance, the 
grave question may arise as to whether 
they shall have the same privileges under 
Ihe constitution as heretofore, or wiiether, 
as the latter may not be readily changed 
in a legitimate way, we shall cast loose the 
sacred bond for the purpose of a re-organ- 
ization and re-construction upon a plan 
more agreeable and consistent with what 
may be the views of many as to what is 
right, 

173. Tlie history of the first twelve 
years of the Union from the declaration of 
independence in 1776 to the adoption of 
the constitution in 1788, in connection 
with what has transpired since, in threats 
of separation and efforts to break up the 
Union, until they have resulted in our 



THE UNITED STATES. 207 

present difficulties, convey to us a most 
important lesson, a lesson which can not 
be too seriously pondered by all who wish 
well to our country and to the cause of 
free institutions. 

174. That lesson teaches the utter 
hopelessness of a reconstruction of the 
government and the Union, if the great 
bond — the fundamental law — -is once dis- 
rupted. Let the conviction obtain that 
the binding force of the constitution is 
gone, and the effect will be like that of 
the withdrawal of the centripetal force 
from the bodies of the solar system. 

The states could only be brought back 
to their places in the Union by the same 
power whicli can alone recall the planets 
to their orl)its. 

175. Human agency and human ef- 
forts, it is quite obvious, would be inef- 
fectual. It is in this view, and under 
this conviction, that many intelligent 
minds look with alarm upon any proposi- 



208 THE GOVERNMENT OP 



• 



tion at this time, to reorganize and recon- 
struct the government. The very words 
have a portentous meaning, and should 
not be used, except with the greatest cau- 
tion and consideration, in connection 
with our present difficulties. 

176. That our Constitution has defects 
of a serious character has been shown. 
The wonder is^ when the history of its 
formation is clearly understood, that it 
contains so few. Its perfect character is 
one of the most striking of the many 
convincing proofs alluded to by Franklin 
in the debate upon it, that " God governs 
in the affairs of men." 

177. We must cling to it, to use the 
words of Jefferson, and uphold it in all 
its vigor as '' the sheet anchor of our po- 
litical safety" during the storm that is 
now raging. It is under Providence our 
only guide and hope. Abandon it and 
our beautiful land will become the prey 
of contending factions, and our great and 



THE UNITED STATES. 209 

good government, with its precious 
freight, comprising all that is most dear 
to humanity, will be cast a hopeless 
wreck upon the strand of time. 

178. We must exert our every energy 
to restore, as speedily as possible, the 
country to its normal political condition 
under the constitution as it is, and when 
this is effected, when the passions of men 
have subsided, and the public mind is in 
a condition to see clearly and judge 
rightly, — when the constitution can be 
revised by a convention which shall rep- 
resent, not the states only, but the people 
of the whole Union, then will be the 
time when every good citizen, every true 
patriot, will use his best endeavors to 
have all defects rectified in a proper and 
legitimate manner. 

179. But while the constitution, under 
Providence, is our only bond and guide 
in these perilous times, we must cling 
to it ; we must submit to it ; we must 

18* 



210 THE GOVERNMENT OF THE U. S. 

not discard it; we must not touch it 
with unhallowed hands, but hold it sa- 
cred and binding as much so, as if it 
came to us from the hands of the great 
Giver, along with the decalogue, amid 
the thunders and the smoke of Sinai. 



l^O- s. 

SOCIAL DUTIES 



*' In Tain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who 
should labor to subvert 'hese great pillars (religion and morality) 
of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men 
and citizens." — [Washington's Farewell Address.] 

1. Man is a social being. This is 
proven by the fact that society is needful 
for the development of his latent powers 
and faculties, moral and intellectual. 

It is proven by the gift of intelligence, 
of benevolence and justice, and of speech. 
By the helplessness of his infancy, and 
the love of kindred, which binds, as with 
a golden chain, families, and tribes, and 
nations. 

In fine, man can only attain to the full 
development and perfection of his natu- 
ral powers as a social being. 

2. This social character of man re- 



212 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

quires that rules be established for the 
regulation of social intercourse ; rules 
which are in accordance with justice and 
right, with the true law of human broth- 
erhood, and that a power be provided for 
their certain enforcement. 

These rules, and this power, constitute 
the civil government of a country. 
Hence, however established, civil govern- 
ments are a necessity, — such a necessity 
as makes them institutions in the order 
or plan of Providence; institutions which, 
when established in accordance with 
reason and natural law, (which is but an- 
other name for divine law,) are to be 
considered as exponents of the will of 
Providence, and are to be respected and 
obeyed accordingly. 

3. Mankind have not hitherto been 
successful in their efforts to establish the 
best form of civil government. The 
nearest approach to the true form has 
been made in our own country within 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 213 

the last hundred years ; but superior as 
our system of government is to all others, 
it is, as was shown in our last number, 
defective or imperfect in some important 
particulars. 

4. To organize and to maintain a right 
government requires, in the majority of 
the governed, a degree of intellectual 
and moral elevation, which seems never 
to have been attained hitherto by any 
people. 

The majority principle, which, with 
some exceptions, is recognized in all of 
our political and social institutions, has 
had a beneficial influence in giving to 
our country a degree of prosperity and 
means of happiness to which the world 
elsewhere, in all of its history, presents 
no parallel. 

5. It follows from the preceding, and 
from what has been said in a previous 
number of the nature or cliaracter of 
civil government, that when once properly 



214 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

established, it has the highest of all pos- 
sible claim to support, and hence rebell- 
ion or forcible resistance to it becomes 
a crime of the darkest dye. 

Rebellion against a government found- 
ed and administered upon the immutable 
principles of justice and of human rights 
is rebellion against God ! 

6. To sustain such a government man 
must be elevated and improved. His in- 
tellectual and moral powers must be cul- 
tivated and developed. Where this result 
is effected in the people of a nation, in 
the highest degree, that people or nation 
are entitled to be considered as the most 
civilized. 

7. As a people advance in civilization, 
their condition individually is improved. 
They possess more of the comforts and 
refinements of life, and this improvement 
continues, so long as there is a healthy 
advance in what constitutes true civiliza- 
tion. 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 215 

Under such an advance and enjoyment 
of the comforts and pleasures of life the 
population naturally increases, and to meet 
the wants of this increase there is at the 
same time an increase in the products of 
labor. 

8. These latter are augmented by the 
causes which follow an improved condition 
of society, viz. : by what is termed the di- 
vision of labor; by the concentration of 
capital for public use in corpora tipns; by 
the intelligent and more extended use of 
the mechanical and chemical powers; by 
improved means of transit and exchange 
of commodities, and transmission of intel- 
ligence ; by the saving of labor caused by 
a properly arranged system of credits; by 
the full and more economical use of the 
power derivable from w^ater in its descent 
to the ocean, and the force derivable from 
the air in motion ; by the power of elec- 
tricity and galvanism; by lieat wlien ap- 
plied to the expansion of vapor and of air 



216 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

and other gases ; and by greater industry 
and a more faithful and conscientious 
performance of his social duties by man 
himself. 

9. All of these aids to man's labor, and 
others which can not now be specified, are 
the natural and sure result of the advance 
of society to a higher civilization, and it 
is thus that the wants of an increasing 
population are supplied, and hence the 
evils predicted by writers on political econ- 
omy to arise from an increase in the pop- 
ulation, are, to a very considerable extent, 
more fanciful than real. 

10. The changes thus described as con- 
sequent upon an improved social condition 
bind the interests of men more closely in 
society, and make them as individuals and 
as nations more dependent upon each other 
— a dependence which demands great in- 
tegrity and uprightness, and a just sense 
of moral obligation in men in their deal- 
ings with each other. 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 217 

Without these qualities, possessed in a 
high degree, the great benefit to be derived 
from the powerful agencies of bodies cor- 
porate, and a well arranged system of 
credits, and exchanges, and other concom- 
itants of a higher civilization, can not be 
realized. 

11. It demands that men shall not only 
be able clearly to comprehend their own 
rights and the claims of others, but shall 
voluntarily and vnthout constraint yield to 
others all that is their just due. Without 
this sense of right and obligation, and dis- 
position to fulfill every moral and social 
duty practically manifested, the close rela- 
tion to and dependence of men upon each 
other under an improved social condition, 
leads or rather tends unavoidably under 
any form of government to an undue con- 
trol by a few over the labor of the many. 

12. It leads, under a free government, 

to class distinctions and divisions, founded 

upon wealth, to that undesired condition 
19 



218 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

of things by which the rich become richer 
and the poor relatively poorer. 

Under other forms of government it 
leads to distinctions and claims to exclu- 
siveness, founded both upon wealth and 
lineage, separate or combined. 

13. At this stage, if the proper correct- 
ive has not been applied, or if the proper 
moral status has not been attained, further 
advance in civilization ceases, and society 
after a period of ineffectual struggles re- 
lapses, slowly at first, but afterwards more 
rapidly, to its original imperfect condition. 

14. This is the ufiavoidable and inevita- 
ble result, however good the government, 
in all cases where man's advancement in 
wealth and prosperity is not accompanied 
with a corresponding improvement in his 
moral condition ; and by the latter is meant 
such an improvement as will induce men 
to deal truthfully and kindly with each 
other; to lay aside the distrust and selfislv 
ness of their uncivilized and unchristian- 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 219 

ized natures, and voluntarily aid in giving 
and securing to each individual his just 
share in the product of all labor, his just 
rights, and his due consideration as a 
brother in the great family of God. 

15. This latter change can not be effect- 
ed by any form of social organization or of 
civil government. The rules of society, 
however perfect they may be, are wholly 
inadequate and incompetent to secure to 
man that elevated condition to which he 
is capable of attaining. They are simply 
auxiharies in the great work, and, as such, 
should be prepared with the utmost care, 
avoiding (as far as it can be done consist- 
ent with strict justice) all such as serve to 
increase rather than lessen the inequalities 
in the property interests of men. 

Our own excellent form of government, 
superior as it undoubtedly is, can only be 
sustained by a high degree of excellence 
in the intellectual and moral condition of 
our people ; and when yielding all the good 



220 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

of which it is capable, falls immeasurably 
short of what is requisite for man's high- 
est wellbeing. 

16. We repeat that civil government 
can not be made the sole, or the chief ef- 
fective agent in humanizing and civilizing 
man, but it should not be as now and as 
heretofore, under most of its forms, an 
obstacle to his improvement. There is, in 
truth, no machinery of man's device that 
can make him what he should be, and 
what he is capable of being, even in this 
life. Legislation or governmental enact- 
ments, however perfect and unexceptiona- 
ble, can not do it. Man must be brought 
to a better and higher sense of what are 
his moral and social duties ; must have a 
juster and clearer view of his obligations 
to his fellow-man and to his Creator. His 
soul must be awakened to a new life, to a 
new sense of the nature and responsibili- 
ties of life. His mind must be cultivated 
and elevated, but above all his heart must 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 221 

be purified and warmed with that divine 
love which will cause it to heat kindly and 
justly towards lus fellow-man. 

17. A change so great as this can not 
be effected suddenly. It is the work of 
years — may be of centuries. Man's pres- 
ent improved condition in the portions of 
the world most civilized, is the result, un- 
der Providence, of centuries of the patient 
persevering labor of the good men of the 
past, and centuries more may roll by be- 
fore the large majority, in the most civil- 
ized portions, shall be found doing their 
whole duty, as members of the same great 
family, as children of the same Father. 

18. It will be obvious from these pre- 
mises that the main reliance for man's el- 
evation is in his ability to comprehend, 
and in his willingness to obey the great 
law of justice and brotherly kindness. 

As man approaclies this improved con- 
dition, material prosperity, wiiich is sure 

to follow, loses its power to harm ; but such 
19* 



222 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

prosperity, without the concomitant of a 
truly Christian life pervading'Tflie entire of 
society, is incapable of ensuring the gen- 
eral happiness. 

The evils which prosperity engenders, if 
not corrected or counteracted by an im- 
provement in man's better nature, will 
leave him in a worse condition than before 
he experienced the smiles of fortune. 

19. It has been stated that political 
writers have anticipated great evil to result 
from an increase in the population, through 
fear of a deficiency in the means of sub- 
sistence. . 

It will be seen that the evil most to be 
feared comes not so much from that source 
as from the difficulty, not to say impossi- 
bility, of causing the improvement in man's 
higher and better nature, to keep pace 
with his advancement in other respects. 

20. Worldly prosperity, so long as the 
selfish principle reigns supreme, does not 
conduce to the general good, but, on the 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 223 

contrary, has a positively adverse tendency, 
and eventually leads to the depression of 
the many, and the conferring of unde- 
served wealth and power on the few, and 
to general degeneracy, deterioration, and 
decay. 

The teachings of history and the expe- 
rience of every man who has seen much 
of life, combine to show that no good or 
lasting improvement in man's condition 
can be effected except by a faithful compli- 
ance, on the part of individuals, in letter 
and in spirit, with the golden rule. 

21. Of all the means and appliances for 
promoting a higher civilization, those which 
are addressed to the mind and heart of 
man are the most effective and important. 
These should begin with the life of the in- 
dividual, and cease only when life has be* 
come extinct. By the family hearth and 
at the family altar the heart of the child 
should be gently lifted and drawn in love 
and reverence to Him whose power created 



224 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

. and sustains all things, and whose wisdom 
and goodness is every where manifest in 
His works. 

22. Not the family hearths only, but the 
schools also, like the pulpits, should be 
sanctuaries of truth. The development 
of those nobler qualities, the germs of 
which are in every living human soul, 
should go hand in hand with intellectual 
culture. Every step in the educational 
progress of the individual should expand 
the trustful kindly feelings of his heart, 
should develop every good quality of his 
nature to the symmetry and the beauty of 
a perfect manhood. Our duties in these 
particulars as American citizens have been 
sadly neglected, a neglect which if per- 
sisted in will bring with it an inevitable 
crop of bitter fruit to be reaped by our 
posterity if not by ourselves. 

23. This, then, is the great work which 
man is called upon to perform. 

First. The establishment, upon the 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 225 

right basis, of civil government, so organ- 
ized that the voice of the majority shall, 
as nearly as practicable, be fully and 
fairly expressed, and thus remove the 
impediments to man's progress or im- 
provement, which are inseparable from 
all other forms of government. 

Secondly, By unceasing effort on the 
part of each individual, to strive to at- 
tain, in himself, to the divine standard, 
in the higher qualities of the mind and 
heart, and to effect by all proper means 
the same result in, the minds and hearts 
of others. 

24. The first, it has been seen, has been 
in good measure attained in this country, 
in the free government with which we 
are blessed, and must be maintained by 
great vigilance, and occasional sacrifices, 
such as we are now making, — sacrifices 
which are made upon the altar of human- 
ity, and which are teaching us the im- 
portant truth, that it requires a very 



226 BOCIAL DUTIES. 

much higher moral and intellectual con- 
dition of society, to maintain, than to 
build up, a republic. 

25. Tiie establishment of a good gov- 
ernment is only a preparation for the 
greater work that is to follow. It is only 
the removal of the rubbish and other 
impediments to the erection and proper 
adornment of the great structure of 
man's civilization, and towards the ac- 
complishment of which every one is ex- 
pected and required, by the Great Build- 
er, to contribute his best efforts. 

So rapid is the advance in material 
prosperity, under a government of the 
best form, that the most strenuous efforts, 
wisely directed, are needed to keep up 
the moral and religious character of so- 
ciety to the required standard. 

26. A free government of as perfect a 
character as possible being established, 
the great work of civilization, we repeat, 
is only, as it were, just begun. 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 227 

It must then be carried on, not by gov- 
ernmental force, not by statutory enact- 
ments, but by unremitting efforts to in- 
culcate and render practical and univer- 
sal the great law of justice and brotherly 
love, that golden bond which grows 
stronger and brighter just in proportion 
as society advances, as it attains a more 
perfect condition. 

27. The Church of Christ is the great 
instrumentality for effecting this change. 
All other organizations and associations 
for man's improvement socially, are, in 
comparison with it, of small account. 

All schemes for niarCs elevation in the 
scale of being-^ not founded upon that 
greatest of laias^ on vjhich hangs all the 
law and the prophets^ are futile, 

28. This great law should be taught 
and promulgated and practiced every 
where, at all times, in all places, by all 
ages, and its observance sedulously en- 
joined as the great means, under Provi- 



228 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

deuce, for the elevation and salvation of 
our race. 

29. All other systems, including the 
many forms of socialism, to which the 
brains of visionary reformers have given 
birth, are impotent and unavailing in 
comparison with it. They are not only 
impotent for good, but they are positively 
hurtful. 

Without the beacon light from on high 
to guide them, the nations will still go 

" groping on their way, 
Stumbling and falling into disastrous night." 

30. A church founded upon and ra- 
diant with the doctrines and example of 
Christ, and its natural offspring a free 
government, are all-sufficient. They are 
in fact inseparable and essential, and are 
entitled to, and most imperatively de- 
mand, man's first consideration and sup- 
port, and if our duty individually to both 
is properly performed, we shall find that 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 229 

we have neither time nor occasion to 
seek the questionable aid of other asso- 
ciations, founded not in God's wisdom, 
but in man's weakness and folly. If we 
earnestly and anxiously desire true and 
permanent advancement in whatever 
leads to happiness and the improvement 
of our social relations and condition in 
this life, we must individually and as a 
people discountenance all other associa- 
tions than those named, as a principal 
means of attaining the desired end. 

31. Our duties in society, duties alike 
binding upon all, and from the perform- 
ance of which no one is at liberty to 
shrink, are therefore two-fold ; to the 
government, and to the church. To the 
latter as distinct and separate from the 
former, avoiding any organic union of 
the two, and giving no countenance to 
sectarianism founded upon conventional 
forms of doubtful utility and not clearly 
traceable to an authentic source, or upon 
20 



230 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

obscure and doubtful interpretations of 
the divine word, — an obscurity in itself 
proof that what is thus veiled is not es- 
sential, and becomes sinful when it con- 
stitutes a bar to Christian unity and co- 
operation in the great work of the world's 
civilization. 

32. As members of both the institu- 
tions named, great responsibilities de 
volve upon us. All associations outside 
of these, having a similar object, do more 
harm than good. 

They do harm, because they occupy 
the time and tlie means which should be 
given to more important duties, and be- 
cause they are easily perverted to the 
selfish purposes of the ambitious and the 
unprincipled. 

33. If they have the character of se 
cret associations, they become still more 
dangerous and objectionable, and trebly 
so, if in addition to their secret character 
they are established for political purposes. 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 231 

All such associations are, under a free 
government, a deadly poison to tlic body 
politic, and the being a member o( such 
should be denounced as a crime, as an 
offence against society of the most serious 
character, for the commission of which, 
it would be a mild punishment to take 
from the guilty party his civil rights. 

34. One of the most illustrious of the 
founders of our government wisely said, 
that " error of opinion might safely be 
tolerated, if reason be left free to combat 
it." Of what avail are the efforts of rea- 
son to correct what is shrouded from the 
public eye, in the secret conclave ? 

That such institutions do exist in our 
country, is one of the portentous signs 
of the times. We must frown down, and 
purge society of all such, if we expect to 
preserve our free government, and make 
solid advances in civilization. 

35. In the catalogue of truths, the 
knowledge of which is essential to man's 



232 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

well-being, there are some which claim 
the pre-eminence. 

Foremost in the list is that Golden 
Rule^ discerned dimly in the ages before, 
but which required to be enunciated 
from the lips of a crucified Saviour, to 
impart to it the force and vigor and re- 
spect necessary to regenerate the world. 

36. Man's relation to his Creator, the 
common Father of all, places him under 
obligations to his fellow-men, which be- 
come more and more ^obvious, just in 
proportion as his nature is elevated and 
improved. 

In his uncultivated state, he is selfish, 
revengeful, almost brutal, to a degree in 
which it is difficult to recognize in his 
moral and intellectual lineaments the 
image of his Maker. 

37. Education, including especially the 
culture of his nobler powers, is as essen- 
tial to him as food, or raiment, or shelter ; 
and although under the influence of such 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 233 

culture, he gradually takes a higher po- 
sition iu the scale of being, yet his infirm- 
ities still cling to him in a greater or less 
degree, so that, while he can not expect 
to become in this life equal to the angels, 
he may, nevertheless, attain an elevation 
far above his status in the present or any 
past period of the world's history. 

38. Man's selfishness in his uncultiva- 
ted state is not without some resulting 
benefit, since it is by reason of his first 
care, each for his individual self, that the 
wellbeing of all, in a low moral condition 
of society, is as well secured as it is. 

Selfishness, however, when not re- 
strained by the reason and the higher 
sentiments, leads the weak and depend- 
ent, as well as the strong, to encroach 
upon the rights of others. Those who 
are strong, are, in particular, influenced 
by it to forget right, or to pay no heed 
to its dictates. 

39. To limit the mischief and the 
20* 



234 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

wrongs caused by the selfishness and ig- 
norance^ of men, laws, as we have stated, 
are enacted, and courts are established 
to interpret those laws and administer 
justice, but the ends aimed at are very 
imperfectly attained. 

40. Civil government is not a remedy 
for the evils which afflict society. 

It restrains evil, but does not remove 
it. By force it maintains order and quiet, 
and while it does this, its powers are often 
perverted and abused by the vicious and 
unprincipled, so that, beneath them as a 
cloak, very much of wrong is often jper- 
petrated. 

41. Man will never reach the perfec- 
tion in this world, of which his nature is 
capable, until he is so far cultivated and 
improved as to see and understand that 
he can not do wrong with impunity, in 
cases where there is no civil law to pro- 
hibit, or civil power to punish, and until 
these restraints shall cease to be essential 
in inducing a correct moral conduct. 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 235 

He must also see and understand clear- 
ly, that while the laws of the land may 
not always be a true measure of right, 
he must not do, nor cause to be done, 
that which those laws prohibit. 

42. Wherever such laws exist and are 
established or assented to by the majority 
of those qualified to act, they must be 
respected and obeyed, not because they 
are of man's make, but because laws thus 
established are the declarations of the 
will of Providence for man's guidance, 
in the manner in which Providence 
chooses to make known His will. 

43. They are obligatory as far as they 
go, because they are expressions of God's 
will, and they are expressions of his will 
just as clearly as that civil government, 
which all know to be essential, is an ex- 
pression of his will. This is the true 
character of civil government and of all 
our written or statute laws, but while we 
concede all this, we can not be too deeply 



236 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

impressed with the truth that the best 
constituted civil government is a very 
imperfect means of compelling man to 
the performance of his social duties. 

44. It is only under the benign and 
heaven-born influence of the great law 
of justice and love that the just claims 
and rights of the less fortunate and 
weaker and most numerous portion of 
society will ever be secured, and without 
such security there can be no very near 
approach to a really high state of civili- 
zation. 

45. It is not very difficult to discover 
that man, in fulfillment of the design of 
Providence, is entitled as a necessity and 
consequence of his being, to food, to 
clothing, and to shelter, or a home, to 
which may be added education, and the 
comforts and common enjoyments of life, 
and he is entitled to them to that degree 
which will conduce most to the full and 
perfect development of his manhood, in 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 237 

all its phases, physically, intellectually 
and morally, or religiously. That is to 
say, he is thus entitled in common with 
others whose conduct morally and reli- 
giously is unexceptionable, and who, like 
himself, are laboring faithfully and to 
the best of their ability, for their own 
support and for the good of others. 

46. In other words, each individual is 
justly entitled, by his equal relation to 
the Creator who made and sustains him, 
and to the earth on whose bosom he is 
cast, and from whence he must receive 
support and nourishment, to a fair parti- 
cipation, for the purposes named, in the 
fruits of the earth, and the products of 
human labor and skill, provided lie per- 
forms his part to the extent of his ability 
in procuring those fruits and products, 
and provided also, that he has not by 
some neglect of duty, misconduct or 
offence against society, forfeited his claim 
to social equality. 



238 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

47. The divine law presents these 
claims and obligations in a clearer and 
more emphatic light, and makes the ob- 
servance of them a matter of love, as 
well as duty. 

Those indulgencies and enjoyments 
which are appropriately ranked under 
the head of the luxuries of life, which 
are in their nature hurtful, which injure 
both health and morals, and impede or 
obstruct the full development of man's 
powers in the right direction, no one has 
a right to them, but each individual is 
bound to abstain from indulgence in 
them. 

48. Although all men exist by virtue 
of the same general laws, and have an 
equal claim, if claim it can be called, 
upon a creating Providence, for whatever 
is needful to the full growth and devel- 
opment of their manhood, yet the cir- 
cumstances and conditions of individual 
men differ, and they are never long the 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 239 

same with the same individual, but vary 
with the varying circumstances of life. 

These differing circumstances, which 
are in a great degree beyond man's con- 
trol, produce inequalities in the condi- 
tion of men which are unavoidable, and 
under the influence of which, man suf- 
fers and enjoys through all the various 
degrees of pain and pleasure of which 
his nature is susceptible. 

49. While very much of the pain 
which man suffers, or of the misfortunes 
that befall him, proceed from causes 
which could not be foreseen or guarded 
against, yet it can not be denied, that 
much of which he is called upon to suf- 
fer is the consequence of his want of 
knowledge, of his neglect to improve the 
powers which his Creator has given him, 
or his abuse of those powers. 

This is true in countries the most civ- 
ilized and enlightened, and in all, the 
framework of society is so imperfectly 



240 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

arranged and defective, as to be the 
cause, directly or indirectly, of much of 
the suffering and ignorance and low 
moral sense which prevails. 

50. These evils are all very greatly in 
creased and aggravated by the unequal 
distribution of the comforts of life. 
Poverty, or the fear of poverty and want, 
is probably one of the most fruitful cans 
es of the evils that afilict society. To 
assist in the removal of this cause, as far 
as it .is practicable to remove it, is the 
duty of all. More than this, those who 
suffer because fortune has failed to smile 
upon their endeavors, and that from no 
fault of their own, have a claim for as- 
sistance, of the most sacred character, 
upon those of their fellow men who are 
more fortunate, — assistance which must 
not cease with satisfying the physical 
wants, but their intellectual and moral 
and religious wants as well. These 
claims we do not expect will be acknowl- 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 241 

edged or be regarded practically to the 
extent we have assumed, until such time 
as the public mind and conscience shall 
be more thoroughly enlightened in res- 
pect to man's social duties. 

51. It is a practical and logical se- 
quence to the great command to '4ove 
thy neighbor as thyself," to assume, that 
all who are equally virtuous, industrious, 
and good, are entitled to an equal share 
of the produce of the fruits of the earth, 
and of human labor. That in food, in 
clothing, in shelter, and in education, 
and in the comforts and refinements of 
life, there should be, as far as possible, 
no discrimination. All should have the 
culture needful for religious, moral and 
intellectual improvement, — should have 
leisure alike for recreation and relaxa- 
tion, — should be alike respectably clad, 
and possess the same home comforts, to 
be enjoyed without fear of losing them, 
21 



242 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

SO long as their social duties are properly 
and faithfully performed. 

52. However desirable so great a re- 
form in society may be, we are not so 
unreasonable as to suppose that it can be 
effected, except approximately, and by 
slow degrees. 

It must come gradually like the ap- 
proach of summer, after a winter of 
storms and snows, just so fast, and no 
faster, as men are awakened to a true 
sense of what are their social duties. 

53. Men must see that these duties 
consist in justice, charity, a right estima- 
tion of the character and value of labor, 
not appropriating more of its products 
to their own use and comfort than is 
their just due, not misapplying it, and 
combining with all an implicit submission 
and obedience to the laws of the land. 

54. Those who may comprehend clear- 
ly the truth of the principles we are ad- 
vocating, and who have been fortunate 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 243 

beyond their fellows in accumulating 
wealth, or what is the same thing, in ac- 
quiring the means of appropriating, as 
they may think proper, the products of 
the labor of others to large amounts, may 
be at loss to know how to act so as best 
to perform their duty. 

56. Of course each individual must, in 
such a case, do as his best judgment and 
conscience shall direct, but we may offer 
a few rules for guidance, in particular 
cases, which may be of service. 

First, as to how much of his means a 
man can properly and justly appropriate 
to the use of himself and family. 

As a faithful steward, and one desirous 
of complying with God's great law by 
giving of his abundance to those of his 
fellow men who are less fortunate, he 
must estimate, as nearly as possible, how 
much of his possessions he may riglitfuUy 
reserve for liis own use and comfort, were 
his fellow-men to do, as all should do, or 



244 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

as all are required to do, under the gold- 
en rule. 

56. Having satisfied himself as to how 
much he may justly retain for his own 
use and benefit and those dependent upon 
him, making reasonable allowance for 
losses from unforeseen causes, not forget- 
ting that it is the duty of every one, hav- 
ing the power, to relieve suffering in all 
cases where the necessity is great, even 
if in ^oing so it is necessary to transcend 
the limits above prescribed, he is next to 
consider how properly to dispose of the 
remainder^ 

67. To find the poor and de^itute it 
is never necessary to look far, for ^'the 
poor ye have always with you." Towards 
the most suffering and deserving of these 
our bounty should flow the most freely, 
remembering to give aid in all cases with 
judgment, and only after careful investi- 
gation, that none may suffer who are 
truly deserving. 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 245 

There should be no thoughtless benevo- 
lence, none of tliat benevolence which 
gives to the laboring poor employment of 
a character which does not conduce in the 
highest degree to public or individual good. 
Those who are blessed with large means 
for the pnrpose may erect substantial, com- 
fortable, moderate sized dwellings, in pleas- 
ant, healthy locations, giving to each dwell- 
ing suitable ground for a garden, and rent 
them at low rates to the poor, and provide, 
when their lives are closed, that the dwell- 
ings shall continue to be so rented, but 
only to the virtuous and deserving. 

68. Exfernals have a great influence 
upon character and conduct. The dress 
we wear and the house we live in, if re- 
spectable in appearance, will produce a 
corresponding effect upon conduct. 

In the one case, although poor, we still 
feel, especially if we have once seen better 
days, that we can associate with those who 
21* 



246 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

are more fortunate, and our self-respect 
and ambition are preserved. 

In the other case being constantly re- 
minded, by our changed appearance, of 
our misfortunes, we shun society, disap- 
pointment and despondency are the conse- 
quence, and instead of renewed efforts to 
escape from our fallen condition, we give 
up in despair to a fate we imagine we can 
not avoid. 

69. There is probably no wiser or better 
mode of aiding the deserving poor than 
that which contemplates the erection, for 
their use, of tenements, as suggested, 
which they can occupy at low rStes. The 
great desideratum is to secure to every 
family a respectable and comfortable home ; 
a home which can be enjoyed and cher- 
ished as such; a home where the right 
moral culture in infancy and childhood 
can be ensured, and manhood be developed 
in its greatest strength and beauty. 

60. Such a provision for the poor will 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 247 

conduce greatly to the improvement of 
man's social condition. 

A comfortable and well looking home 
will stimulate its tenants to neatness and 
order. The garden will afford occupation 
for leisure hours, that would otherwise be 
spent in the company of the idle or disso- 
lute. • Its floral beauties will preach to the • 
household the kindness of Providence, and 
help greatly to purify the moral atmos- 
phere ; respectability of character will fol- 
low, when, without such incentives, a con- 
trary effect might result. 

61. The erection of the tenements we 
advocate should not be entrusted to the 
honesty or integrity of executors. It is 
the duty of all to see, during tlieir lives, 
that their charities are properly applied. 

It is one of the saddest of sights to be- 
hold as we do, particularly in our larger 
cities, so many families without homes — 
without any of the blessed comforts and 
associations and endearments of home, 



248 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

and without a place even to lay their dead 
in ground appropriated to their separate 
use. The potter's field which swallows up 
so large a portion of the population of our 
cities, and the wild and heathen-like ex- 
travagance to be seen in our Greenwoods 
and Mount Auburns, are alike a disgrace 
to the age and nation in which we live. 
They are another of the many proofs that 
we are still, with all our boasted intelli- 
gence, on the confines of barbarism. 

62. Other methods of aiding the less 
fortunate and of doing good may be found, 
such as the erection of school-houses in 
pleasant and healthy locations, the forma- 
tion of libraries and erection of buildings 
for their use, and the erection of houses 
for public worship; of asylums for the 
unfortunate; of hospitals and houses of 
reformation and refuge. All these are 
proper objects for charity, but beyond the 
purchase of the necessary land, and the 
erection of buildings of a permanent char- 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 249 

acter, and supplying them with furniture 
and libraries and other objects of a similar 
character, it is not proper to go. 

63. Endowments, the income of which 
is to support professorships or superinten- 
dents, or to defray the current exponses of 
institutions of a benevolent and public 
character, are objectionable, for the reason 
that by an unfortunate investment of the 
principal, or unfaithfulness of trustees, the 
charity may be lost. They are objection- 
able also for the reason that incompetent 
or unworthy men too often get possession 
of such livings, and the good intended to 
be produced is not attained, but, in place 
of it, temptation is offered to crime. 

64. Endowments of religious institu- 
tions, the income only of wiiich is to be 
used, are especially objectionable for the 
reasons stated, and because they constitute 
a premium for hypocrisy, and serve to cor- 
rupt an institution which, of all others, 
should be free from the temptations which 



250 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

might lure the unprincipled into its sanc- 
tuaries. 

65. It is not requiring too much for each 
generation to defray the cost of properly 
maintaining all institutions whose object 
is the amelioration and improvement of 
the condition of mankind. Justice and 
sound policy demand that each generation 
shall, in its day, contribute whatever is 
needful for the current expenses of all be- 
nevolent and religious institutions, and 
shall not limit their contributions to inter- 
est or income only, when the principal 
should be at once appropriated to such 
objects. 

66. To take from the living that which 
is rightfully their due and place it where 
it may or may not benefit those who have 
not yet come upon the stage of existence 
is clearly unjust and impolitic. It is an 
injury to society by depriving it of present 
means of comfort or improvement, and 
thus lessening its power of conferring upon 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 251 

the generations coming after a greater 
blessing than can possibly be transmitted 
in the amount of interest upon capital^ 
liowever well or safely invested. 

67. The endowment of institutions of 
the character named, where the interest 
only is to be used, is indeed attended with 
such danger of injury to society as to justify 
the interference of the civil power to pre- 
vent and render invalid all such endow- 
ments. 

68. It is the tendency of all organiza- 
tions having property interests to a large 
amount to ally themselves with, or to favor 
by their influence, that form of govern- 
ment which is deemed to be the strongest, 
even to the positive injury of the e:eneral 
interests of society and of mankind, and 
hence all such organizations should be dis- 
countenanced. It is not right to presume 
that the generations of the future will not 
each in its turn do its duty and its whole 
duty in contributing to the wants and to 



252 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

the claims of the suffering and deserving 
of their own time. Neither is it right to 
lay obstacles in the pathway of truth by 
clothing with a perpetual power for mis- 
chief institutions established in the dim 
light of the past or the present, and 
founded in error. 

The world is at this moment and in all 
of its past history full of evidence of the 
correctness of the views here advanced. 

69. The wealth which individuals may 
possess over and above what is needful and 
proper for their own use should be applied 
in a manner to produce the greatest pres- 
ent good. 

If invested in buildings, whether for 
public or private use, architectural extrav- 
agance and folly should be studiously 
avoided. Outside appearance, while it 
should be tasteful and symmetrical, should 
not be solely consulted to the neglect of 
interior arrangements for comfort and use. 
Light and ventilation and a supply of pure 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 253. 

water are essential, as is also economy of 
heating in the colder climates. It is prob- 
ably a true saying that more of the avails 
of human labor have been wasted upon 
architecture, public and private, on the 
land and upon the sea, than in all of the 
wars and all of the conflagrations that 
have ever occurred. 

70. This waste has been apparent ev- 
ery where, in the cities and in the coun- 
try, on our inland waters and upon the 
ocean. It has been seen in the destruc- 
tion of comfortable and substantial build- 
ings, to give place to others possessing a 
more gorgeous appearance, — in the wan- 
ton and useless expense incurred in ex- 
ternal and internal embellishments, — in 
the erection of the most ornate and costly 
buildings for mere places of business in 
our cities, or for private residences in 
both city and country, and in the filling 
of the latter with furniture of palatial 
splendor. 
22 



:254 SOCIAL duties. 

71. If we add to all this the long array 
of extravagancies in equipages, in dress, 
in sumptuous living, in costly entertain- 
ments to gratify the lower passions, in 
the worse than beastly use of narcotics 
and stimulants, and a long catalogue of 
minor offences, we shall have a mass of 
folly and stupidity, and of guilt, in this 
our land, which we call by the name of 
Christian, almost, if not quite, sufficient 
to justify the fate which befell the cities 
of the Syrian plain. And this wanton 
and sinful waste and extravagance, and 
neglect of the claims of the unfortunate, 
is practiced by thousands, and by tens 
and even hundreds of thousands, who 
profess to be Christian men and women ; 
is practiced by those who daily insult the 
ear of the Most High with petitions for 
itheir own daily bread. 

72. These things show how little the 
people of the present day, and in our 
own country, have advanced in what 
constitutes true civilization. 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 255 

They show that, notwithstanding the 
great progress made in the sciences and 
in the arts, and in material prosperity 
under our free institutions, we are yet 
groping in the thick darkness of barba- 
rism, in that which pertains to our high- 
est wellbeing. 

73. This great guilt is now weighing 
heavily upon us as a people. It is pro- 
ducing its legitimate fruits, in our pres- 
ent unhappy condition as a nation, — in 
the destruction of fortunes, and in the 
misery and suffering which must follow 
in the train of the terrible contest in 
which we are now engaged for the pres- 
ervation of the national life. 

74. This immense waste and extrava- 
gance is caused by those whom Provi- 
dence has temporarily entrusted with a' 
control over the labor of others, — a con- 
trol designed to be exercised for a very 
different purpose. It has been caused, 
too, while tens and hundreds of thou- 



256 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

sands of our fellow-creatures have been 
suffering at our very doors for the want 
of comfortable homes, for the want of 
moral and intellectual training, for the 
want of the common enjoyments of life, 
and for the want even of decent food and 
raiment. 

75. This extravagance and waste on 
the one hand, and, on the other, neglect 
of the claims of humanity, must, as sure 
as there is a power above to punish sin, 
meet with its just reward. The control 
which circumstances give to men over 
human labor, is a trust from heaven. It 
can not be violated without incurring the 
just displeasure of the Almighty. 

76. There has been within the last 
half-century, in certain portions of the 
globe, a great improvement in the social 
condition of man. This improvement is 
particularly marked in our own country, 
a result, in part, of the good effect of 
our civil institutions, but mainly, of the 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 257 

religious and moral character of our 
people. 

77. Less than sixty years since, men 
within the limits of the United States, 
and of New England even, were punished 
for ofiences against society, by being 
branded with hot irons, by having their 
ears cropped and bored, and their naked 
bodies scourged at the whipping-post. 

It is less than that time since the un- 
fortunate debtor was incarcerated in a 
loathsome jail, with thieves and maniacs 
for his companions, and there kept uiitiL 
released by death, or payment of his 
debts was extorted from sympathizing 
relatives and friends. 

78. Our laws for the protection and 
support of the poor, although much im- 
proved from former years, and more per- 
fect than those of most other countries, 
are at this time greatly discreditable to 
us as a people. 

In proof of this, we have but to con- 
22* 



258 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

sider the property which a poor debtor 
and his family are permitted to retain 
exempt from execution in one of the 
most enlightened of the states of the 
Union. 

1. "Wearing apparel, bedding, Ac, 
necessary to support life," (these 

are the words,) say, - - $150 

2. Implements of trade, - - 60 

3. Live-stock and hay, - - 140 

4. Wood and charcoal, - - 18 
6. Mineral coal, - - - - 27 

6. Flour, grain and vegetables, 57 

7. Meat and fish, - - . 88 

8. Wool and flax, - - - 38 

9. Stove and pipe, - - - 40 
The above is all that the Christian civ- 
ilization of the people of Connecticut 
allows to be retained from the grasp of 
an iron-hearted creditor, no matter what 
the ability of the family to support them- 
selves, or their previous habits of living, 
or standing in society. 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 259 

79. This provision for the unfortunate 
poor amounts altogether at present prices 
of the articles enumerated, to less than 
$600 for each family, large or small, and 
it discriminates, unjustly, between the 
poor of the country and the city, giving 
more to the former than to the latter, for 
of what use is live-stock, and hay, and 
wood, and wool, and flax, to the poor of 
the cities ? 

80. The laws of Connecticut allow no 
roof to shelter — no home for the desti- 
tute. They make poverty a crime, and 
take from it the means of escape from its 
toils, and rob man of all incentives to 
efTorts to extricate himself from his fallen 
condition. 

81. The poor-debtor law of New York 
is a little more christian in character, in- 
asmuch as it exempts from execution a 
lot and building, the actual residence of 
the debtor, provided the value does not 
exceed the small sum of one thousand 



260 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

dollars, and it exempts also the family 
bible, and school and other books to the 
value of fifty dollars. 

82. In the new states of the west the 
unfortunate poor are in general still bet- 
ter cared for, but in all, notwithstanding 
as a people we are, in our treatment of 
the poor, greatly in advance of most civ- 
ilized nations, we are yet lamentably defi- 
cient in a practical exemplification o£ our 
duties to the unfortunate, and especially 
to the females and children among the 
poor of our land. 

83. Our statute laws by their unmer- 
ciful and unchristian treatment of the 
poor, are doing for the destruction of 
morals, as much, nearly, as the Christian 
Church is doing for their preservation. 
The power which they give to the heart- 
less creditor over the unfortunate debtor, 
drives men to the practice of all sorts of 
deceptions to screen their property from 
attachment or sacrifice, and forces both 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 261 

sexes into practices for the preservation 
of life, against which their better natures 
revolt. 

The proofs of these sad effects of indif- 
ference to the claims of the poor, are 
abundant every where, and when we un- 
derstand truly the condition into which 
the laws and the neglect of* society have 
placed them, our wonder is excited, that 
there remains with them so much of vir- 
tue, and so little of acerbity of feeling 
toward the cold world around them. 

84. If we take our statute-books as 
evidence, we have only advanced just so 
far in our knowledge of our obligations 
to our fellow-men, as to concede that the 
unfortunate poor are entitled at the hands 
of the more fortunate to so much of rai- 
ment and food as is necessary, for the 
time being, for the support of life. We 
have yet to learn that the moral and re- 
ligious and intellectual wants of the poor 
and deserving, demand relief at our 



262 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

hands and that such are entitled also to 
comfortable homes and the common en- 
joyments of life, 

85. Charity is a great and solemn duty. 
To withhold aid from the deserving poor 
is to rob them of what, in truth, is their 
just due. If those who are more fortu- 
nate neglect* or refuse to extend the re- 
quired relief to the suffering, from the 
abundance with which they have been 
blessed, they violate both natural and 
divine law, — such men are the Ishmael- 
ites of society, and belong to that un- 
worthy class who get their support and 
enjoyments by depredating upon the 
rights and the labor of others. 

86. The man of wealth is always 
largely in debt. His creditors are the 
worthy among the poor and needy. The 
laws of the land can not compel him to 
do his duty, but the law of nature and 
of God commands him, under the sever- 
est penalty, the penalty of a tortured 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 26o 

soul ill the life to come, not to withhold, 
from its rightful owners, the abundance 
which fortune or Providence has placed 
in his Imnds. 

87. Man must not only make a right 
and proper and christian use of the prod- 
ucts of labor under his control, and of 
his power over labor, but he must labor 
himself to the best of his ability, and in 
a manner to be productive of the most 
good. 

Life implies the ability to do and to 
perform. Where there is life there must 
be work, otherwise life is given in vain. 
Even the Highest is not exempt. " The 
firmament showeth His handy work." 
" The Heavens are the work of His fin- 
gers." " My Father worketh hitherto, 
and I work." " I must work the work 
of Him that sent me, while it is day ; for 
the night cometh, when no man can 
work." 

88. Throughout the entire compass of 



264 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

life, work is expected as its proper and 
legitimate fruit. The life which does not 
produce its proper fruit, or which pro- 
duces only evil fruit, has no claim to 
protection, no claim to continuance. 

The dead tree which is cut down be- 
cause it cumbers the ground, is less hurt- 
ful than such a life, for the latter, while 
it gives no return, is drawing upon the 
world for its support. 

89. Heaven in giving life to man ex- 
pects from man whatever the power thus 
bestowed can effect towards the general 
good. It expects from all mental and 
bodily labor to the extent of the ability 
of each without distinction of rank or 
calling, and requires that such labor shall 
be rightly and properly directed. 

" God does not need either man's work, 
or His own gifts," but he expects from 
man, nevertheless, all that man is capa- 
ble, under the powers given him, of ef- 
fecting for the best good of all. ''Six 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 265 

days shalt thou labor," is his positive 
command. 

To allow these powers to remain idle, 
is to disobey and treat with disrespect 
Him who sits upon the throne of the 
Heavens ; and to employ them in active 
and open or covert hostility to whatever is 
good, is a defiance of God's authority 
and power, a crime which transforms 
men as well as angels into devils. 

90. Man's labor, therefore, when di- 
rected to useful and worthy ends, is not 
only honorable, but i^ in fulfillment of a 
high and sacred duty, and the fruit of 
such labor is in consequence sacred. To 
wantonly waste or to unjustly appropri- 
ate the products of labor, is as criminal 
in the sight of heaven, as to wantonly 
waste and destroy life. The two are con- 
vertible, and the individual who violates 
this law commits a crime against society, 
and against heaven, which is hear akin 
to homicide or murder, and the crime is 
23 



266 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

only lessened in degree, if, instead of 
destroying the products of labor, we mis- 
apply them or fail to realize such products 
through inactivity or idleness. 

91. In useful, honest labor, and the 
practice of the virtues, consists the true 
nobility of man. These form the only 
correct measure of character and of 
standing in society. From each indi- 
vidual, positive good, or efforts to effect 
good, are expected to the extent of his 
ability, and, when this is rendered, the 
individual is entitled to respect and 
honor. 

92. Industry is a chief cardinal virtue, 
and should be honored accordingly, and 
this honor should have no regard to the 
calling, provided, it is useful and adapted 
to the capacity of the individual. 

93. The duty to labor is very indiffer- 
ently performed by many, by some not 
performed at all, and by others so per- 
formed as to produce a result worse than 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 267 

idleness itself, which is one of the most 
heinous of sins. 

94. If one man has natural powers 
superior to another, whether intellectual 
or physical, or if, by reason of superior 
advantages of education, he possesses 
superior knowledge, and if the value of 
his labor is thereby enhanced, he is not 
in consequence entitled to any greater 
reward. His superiority places upon 
him greater responsibility, and more is 
rightfully demanded of him. 

95. The duties of men in society are 
various. Each should seek to fill the 
place for which his powers are best adapt- 
ed, and if all are employed, each to the 
best of his or her knowledge or ability, 
all are entitled to share alike in the pro- 
duct of their joint labors, and to equal 
respect. 

96. Men should be educated not that 
they may, by means of their superior 
knowledge, more successfully prey upon 



268* SOCIAL DUTIES. 

and appropriate the labor of others, but 
that they may possess the power of ren- 
dering their lives more valuable to the 
world ; in other words, that they may be 
able to do the greatest amount of good. 

97. All experience shows, that while 
as a general rule, prosperity, so far as 
regards the accumulation of worldly 
goods is more sure to attend those who 
are industrious and worthy members of 
society, yet it is well known that circum- 
stances, over which we have no control, 
exert often a very great influence in re- 
ducing to poverty or i^aising to affluence. 
Capricious fortune showers her favors 
often upon the indolent and unworthy, 
and riches take to themselves wings, and 
so suddenly that the sun at its setting 
looks upon destitution, where, at its ris- 
ing, there was abundance. 

98. There are also causes powerful in 
their nature, and beyond individual con- * 
trol, which operate to create disparity in 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 269 

the conditions of men. This is apparent 
in civilized communities under the best 
systems of division of labor, and it is es- 
pecially apparent in all those large por- 
tions of the globe which are indifferently 
or insufficiently supplied with water from 
the clouds for the successful cultivation 
of the soil. In such regions where irri- 
gation becomes essential, the main chan- 
nels of supply naturally and unavoidably 
fall into the possession of the few who 
have capital, and who, holding the labor 
of the many at their mercy, create a de- 
pendence of labor upon capital more op- 
pressive often than that slavery which 
makes the person of the laborer or his 
services for life the property of another. 
99. So much of the entire surface of 
the globe is in that condition which pre- 
cludes the possibility of irrigation direct 
from the clouds, and the cultivation of 
the soil is every where so important, that 
this subject is one of the deepest interest 
23* 



270 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

to mankind, and should not be over- 
looked, as it has been by writers upon 
political science. 

100. That portion of Asia which was 
the theater of the teachings of those 
from whom we derive the inspired rec- 
ord, possessing, as it does, a physical 
character such as we are considering, 
explains the absence in that record of 
denunciations of a servitude which was 
in a measure the result of climate, and 
the earnestness with which, upon almost 
every page, the observance of the golden 
rule is inculcated. 

101. No written rules or laws of society 
can ensure to each individual a just par- 
ticipation in the fruits of labor, but gov- 
ernment, in its action, should carefully 
abstain from the enactment of laws 
which tend to increase the inequalities 
in the condition of men, and so direct 
its powers that those inequalities will 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 271 

not be as great as they otherwise would 
be. 

102. The world presents to us the 
spectacle of daily toil, of poverty and 
suffering, on the one hand, and on the 
other, luxurious ease, comfort, and in- 
dulgence, while between, are the inter- 
mediate grades of labor and enjoyment, 
varying with all the varying conditions 
of life. 

103. So different are the conditions of 
men, and so great is the power which 
wealth and station confers, and so lielp- 
less the condition of those who depend 
upon their daily labor for their daily 
bread, that the divine injunction of all 
to labor, is accompanied with the com- 
mand to rest and keep holy every seventh 
day, and with the severest denunciations 
of those who unjustly use the power they 
possess to oppress others. 

104. " I will be a swift witness against 
those that oppress," &c. (Mai. 3 : 5.) 



272 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

'' The wicked have drawn out the sword 
and have bent their bow to cast down the 
poor and needy." " Their sword shall en- 
ter into their own breast and their bows 
shall be broken." (Ps. 37 : 14-15.) 
The Lord will enter into judgment with 
those who despoil and grind the faces of 
the poor. (Isa. 3 : 14-15.) The op- 
pressor of the poor and needy, and 
who spoileth his brother by violence, 
shall die in his iniquity. (Ezek. 18 : 12 
to 18.) "The people of the land have 
used oppression and exercised robbery, 
and have vexed the poor and needy." * * * 
"Therefore have I poured out mine in- 
dignation upon them, I have consumed 
them with the fire of my wrath." (Ezek. 
22: 29, 31.) Because of their op- 
pression of the widows, the fatherless 
and the poor, there came a great wrath 
from the Lord of Hosts, and scattered 
them (the Israelites) as with a whirlwind 
among all nations, and their land was 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 273 

left desolate. (Zech. 7 : 10 to 14.) In 
Job, the heritage of oppressors is des- 
cribed : " The heavens shall reveal their 
iniquity, and the earth shall rise up 
against them." Their fate is fearful, 
*'God will not spare them." 

105. It is obvious J|P the most careless 
observer, that a very large portion of 
mankind do not contribute, by the labor 
of their hands or brains, their due pro- 
portion of effort for the support of the 
whole. Drones and idlers, innumerable, 
are to be seen every where. Add to 
these those whose labor is misdirected or 
misapplied, and taking into view, also, 
the improvements made and making in 
the arts, and saving by the division of 
labor, and the saving which might be 
effected by a proper restraint upon our 
appetites, and it is easy to see that if each 
individual were to perform his proper 
duty, and in a proper manner, to the 
best of his ability, much less than one 



274 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

half of the working days of the week, 
devoted to the wants of the body, would 
be ample for procuring all that is needful 
for health and comfort. 

106. This would leave the remainder 
for intellectual culture and social enjoy- 
ment, and efforts ftir the general good, 
and if, in addition to all this, the duty of 
each is practically performed under the 
golden rule, we should soon witness a 
degree of social elevation which has never 
yet been approached, in the most refined 
portion of the most civilized of the chris- 
tian nations of the globe. 

107, In our own country the necessity 
for all to labor in a manner the most 
profitable and effective, is being pressed 
upon us with peculiar urgency and force. 
The extent to which the labor of the 
country is being disturbed by transfers 
to our army and navy, of those who have 
been most active as producers, and who 
are still consumers, renders extraordi- 
nary effort important. 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 275 

108. The nation, by reason of the pres- 
ent great revolt, is necessarily contract- 
ing an immense debt, the means for the 
liquidation of which must be derived 
from its industry and its accumulated 
wealth ; but the burden thus cast upon 
us should be cheerfully borne, and not 
counted as such in view of the great 
interests involved, — interests of a char- 
acter the dearest possible, not to the 
people of this country or to this genera- 
tion only, but to mankind throughout all 
the generations of the future. The bur- 
den thus imposed, grievous and weighty 
as it may be, at first, is quite certain to 
be gradually removed by the increase in 
the population of the country, by the 
additions to its producing power from 
improvements in the arts, (improvements 
which in past years have enabled our 
people from their accumulations to sup- 
ply thus far the wants of the govern- 
ment,) and by the better reward which 



276 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

labor is likely to obtain in future because 
of the higher estimate put upon it through 
the instrumentality of the war. The se- 
verest of our trials will be caused, not so 
much from the burden of a great na- 
tional debt, as from the humiliation and 
mortification and sorrow in view of the 
character of the struggle, the loss of so 
many noble and valuable lives, and the 
painful reflection that the vast amount of 
human effort demanded by it, success- 
fully to maintain the rights of humanity, 
would have contributed, if differently 
directed, largely to our national wealth 
and strength, and to the comfort and 
wellbeing of every individual and family 
in our land. 

109. It was the especial and acknowl- 
edged aim of the authors of the rebell- 
ion, to perpetuate thereby an odious 
monopoly over the labor of others. Their 
success in riveting the chains of human 
servitude would have stimulated to ef- 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 277 

forts ill the same direction, regardless of 
the color of the skin, and the wheels of 
revolution and progress throughout the 
civilized world, which for the last three 
centuries have been moving in 'unison 
with the interests of labor and the cause 
of human brotherhood, would have been 
turned remorselessly backward. 

110. Tlie contest therefore is not sim- 
ply one in which a disloyal and ungrate- 
ful people are endeavoring forcibly to 
extricate themselves from their obliga- 
tions to a government which, has ever, 
treated them justly. 

It is one in which the labor of the 
world is interested. 

It is the same contest which for so 
many centuries has held the toiling mill- 
ions between the mill-stones of power, and 
which at the present time has reached 
its culmination in one of its phases, with- 
in our own limits. A contest the more 
dreadful and deplorable because of its 
24 



278 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

intestine character, and waged by those 
who from education and the example of 
their fathers should be standing shoulder 
to shoulder with us in the world's strug- 
gle for the rights of humanity. 

111. In this country, where the stand- 
ard of intelligence and morals is prob- 
ably higher, with the mass of the popu- 
lation, than in any other equal portion of 
the earth's surface, holding as large a 
population, the experiment, as stated in 
the first part of this article, is being made 
of a government established upon the 
basis, that the voice of the majority of 
the governed, or of those who rightfully 
hold the supreme power, is paramount. 

112. The practical working of this ex- 
periment has thus far exceeded the most 
sanguine expectations. Until the recent 
great outbreak, history affords no paral- 
lel to the prosperity which shone upon 
us as a nation. Under the benign influ- 
ence of our free institutions, industry 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 279 

was encouraged by securing to labor, 
more completely than under the forms 
of government prevailing in Europe and 
elsewhere, its just reward. 

The necessaries and comforts of life 
were eftjoyed by us in a higher degree 
than was probably ever before experi- 
enced by any people. The operation of 
our laws was such, by the equal division 
of estates, and the absence of a privileged 
class in the government, and their admin- 
'istration was so just, and property was so 
lightly taxed, that every where was pros- 
perity and abundance. 

Of the comparatively few cases of suf- 
fering by destitution, the most of them 
were caused by the neglect or the vices of 
the sufferers themselves. 

113. Laws approved by the majority of 
those qualified to act can not well be oth- 
erwise than the best adapted to promote 
the general welfare. The natural, and to 
a certain extent, necessary inequalities in 



280 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

the condition of men, instead of being in- 
creased, as under other forms of govern- 
ment, are very greatly lessened. 

114. As beneficial, however, as our re- 
publican system has proved to be, and su- 
perior, as it undoubtedly is, to all other 
forms of government in the protection it 
affords to labor and to individual rights, 
yet its influence, as has already been stat- 
ed, is limited in the regulation of human 
conduct. 

It can only prescribe limits to individual- 
action under general rules, and impose 
penalties for the violation of those rules 
when those violations are properly noticed 
and shown to be such by the decision of 
the courts. 

115. Much as our peculiar form of gov- 
ernment has been able to accomplish, or 
may yet accomplish when further improved, 
in ameliorating the condition of the peo- 
ple, very much remains to be accomplished, 
which can only be effected by widely dif- 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 281 

ferent means, namely, by the careful ob- 
servance on the part of each individual of 
the injunction of the Great Teacher and 
Lawgiver to " love our neighbors as our- 
selves." 

116. To do good or to abstain from 
wrong within the limits of the statute or 
written law is not enough. We must obey 
the great and divine law of charity and 
love, must conform to it as imperatively 
binding upon us. We must realize timt 
a neglect or violation of it will assuredly 
bring upon us, sooner or later, the penal- 
ties due to its violation. We must respect 
and obey it as the law of God, and in do- 
ing this we must not forget that as our 
written or statute laws have, under our 
free institutions, more emphatically than 
any other, the divine sanction, we must 
submit to and obey them even if they may 
seem to be wrong. 

117. Under such a government as ours 
there is no law superior to the supreme 
24* 



282 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

law of the land. All governmental ordi- 
nances from the fundamental law or con- 
stitution down to the by-laws of the small- 
est town or borough, have the divine sanc- 
tion. They are in the strictest sense the 
manifestations of the divine will, the acts 
of a special providence for our guidance, 
and should be respected and obeyed as such. 
118. While the laws of the land should 
be consistent with natural or divine rights, 
or*rather should be simply declaratory of 
those rights, yet they may not be thus con- 
sistent, but may in fact, in particular in- 
stances, operate unjustly. They should 
nevertheless be obeyed, and implicitly in 
all cases where the evil of obedience does 
not greatly outweigh that of resistance. 
Under a free government resistance can 
seldom, if ever, be justified, because unjust 
laws under such a government are very 
sure, sooner or later, to be rectified in a 
legitimate way by the good sense and right 
feeling of the majority. It is very safe to 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 283 

assume that, under such a government, 
the evil which would ensue from a forcible 
resistance to the laws would not be com- 
pensated by any resulting benefit. 

119. No sacrifice is too great for the 
maintenance of such a government as 
ours. Those other forms which differ rad- 
ically from our own are hostile to the 
rights and true interests of the people. 
Their tendency is to resolve men into 
classes, the higher or most privileged class 
being supported by and assuming the right 
to dictate to and to govern the lower. 

120. The republican system places all 
upon a just level as to their civil rights. 
It opens wide the door of emancipation 
from the tyranny of class, and makes pro- 
motion to the higher places of trust, power 
and influence, possible for all who are duly 
qualified. It encourages such to render 
themselves worthy of preferment by the 
acquisition of a suitable education and ir- 
reproachable conduct. It awakens the 



284 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

ambition of men to a higher self-culture, 
and to a love of the more refined enjoy- 
ments of life. But while it does all this 
it must be remembered that the great ob- 
ject of securing to man greater happiness 
may not be attained. 

121. Men are not benefitted by lifting 
them from the depressed condition in which 
the tyranny of class or the selfishness of 
their fellow-men or their own indolence or 
misfortunes may have placed them, to the 
enjoyments and rational pleasures of life, 
if they are thrust back, or liable to be 
thrust back to their former condition. That 
(Jondition which before the change to a 
better was bearable, and had even its en- 
joyments, through ignorance of a better, 
becomes a terrible punishment to those 
who have tasted the sweets of cultivated 
life, and the enjoyment which is found in 
homes of comfort and ease. 

122. To have succeeded, therefore, in 
establishing and maintaining a republican 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 285 

system of government of the best form is 
not alone sufficient. This step, an impor- 
tant one in man's progress, only renders 
another the more necessary, and that other 
demands of each individual that, by his 
own effort and the grace of God, he con- 
quer his selfish desires, and open his heart 
to his fellow-men, and find his greatest 
happiness in sharing with them the trials 
and the enjoyments of life. 

123. When our fathers laid the founda- 
tion of this glorious republic they were 
actuated by the lofty principle of love to 
their fellow-men. It is our duty not only 
to preserve the institutions thus founded 
in the true spirit of benevolence and Chris" 
tian charity, but to go farther and see that 
in the performance of life's duties we ex- 
hibit individually in our social relations 
the same noble sentiments and interest in 
the welfare of others. 

124. It is a solemn duty resting upon 
each one of us to use our best endeavors 



286 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

to elevate the standard of public virtue 
and of Christian charity, so that the ma- 
terial prosperity which is sure to follow in 
the train of a republican government shall 
not prove a curse instead of a blessing. 

125. Christianity is the life and soul of 
a free government. The two can not be 
separated. The latter may without the 
former flourish for a season, but it must 
inevitably languish and die if not upheld 
by that high degree of virtue in the people 
which Christianity alone can impart. 

To maintain and perpetuate such a gov- 
ernment we must become a truly Chris- 
tian people, and we must have the grace 
of God to make us such, for " except the 
Lord build the city they labor in vain who 
build it." 

126. In a former number we pointed 
out the necessity of co-operation among 
the heads of families, and their duty to 
hold within their own control the civil 
government of the country; but while 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 287 

such co-operation is all important, they 
have another duty to perform not less 
weighty and cogent, namely, their duty to 
those over whom they have more immedi- 
ate control, and who look to them for 
guidance and support. Each head of a 
family clothed as he is with a power al- 
most despotic within his own household, 
occupies in this particular a position of 
very great respionsibility. The proper 
training of children, their education and 
preparation for the duties of life, require 
knowledge, judgment, gQod example, firm- 
ness, and steadiness in guiding, such as 
can only be acquired by serious and earn- 
est endeavor and attention on the part of 
parents. 

127. As the great work of civilization 
is to be accomplished, and is manifested 
mainly by an improvement of the family 
institution, the heads of families will be 
held in a high degree accountable for that 
improvement. Under the unexampled 



288 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

prosperity with wliich, in past years, our 
country has been blessed, we have lost 
sight of duty in this respect. Parents, 
from indifference, or because engrossed by 
worldly cares or the pursuit of gain, or 
trusting too much to the efficacy of Sun- 
day School teaching and pulpit monitions, 
have neglected, and still neglect, their du- 
ties to their children, and to that degree 
that at no time, perhaps, in the history of 
our country, has there been a more 
wretched display of immorality and de- 
praved appetite by the youth of our coun- 
try than at present. 

128. The efforts of the church and the 
schools will be in vain exerted to check 
this great and growing evil, unless vigor- 
ously seconded by the heads of families. 
We ask our countrymen to ponder well 
this subject, and to. do each his part 
promptly and manfully in the great work 
of family reform, a reform which is the 
basis of whatever is elevating and enno- 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 289 

bling in the social condition of man ; and 
while thus appealing to the heads of fami- 
lies we would say to those who fill the 
places of power and responsibility in the 
state, and in the church, and in our semi- 
naries of learning, to give this subject of 
the family its due importance in your 
teachings, and to strive more earnestly to 
effect a better understanding by mankind 
of their duties in regard to it. 

129. Neglect of those duties is a most 
certain indication of the speedy downfall 
of a people. Any system which leads to 
such neglect or tends to seriously impair 
the good character of the family institu- 
tion is certain, sooner or later, to be fol- 
lowed by fatal results. No nation can long 
stand and prosper where great disparity 
in the condition of the people exposes the 
weak and ignorant to the passions and ap- 
petites of the strong. Public virtue, which 
is a necessary basis of all right and stable 
government, can not be maintained if the 
25 



290 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

sanctities of the hearth and the altar are 
invaded. 

130. It is in this view that human sla- 
very, or abject dependence of any form, 
by first demoralizing is sure to effect the 
ruin of a people. The history of mankind 
during the past ages becomes intelligible, 
and its teachings become of value mainly 
when viewed in the light of the great 
truth we have been endeavoring to incul- 
cate. To ensure a good government and 
an improved condition of society we must 
strive by all proper means to give to the 
families of the land a proper social equal- 
ity, and to each household the most perfect 
ordering of its domestic concerns. 

131. There is at the present time in our 
country a low state of morals and intel- 
lectual culture compared to what it may 
and must be, if the blessing of a govern- 
ment so excellent as our own is to be pre- 
served. 

We cau not be too deeply impressed with 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 291 

the great truth that the remedy for the ills 
of societfj lies only partially in the poiver 
of civil government to remedy^ even if that 
government is of the best kind and admin- 
istered in the best manner. It must be 
sought for in the improved moral and re- 
ligious condition of man, in the elevation 
of his moral and intellectual powers, in 
his entire submission to the law of love to 
his fellow-man, and in an unceasing con- 
scientious effort to do all which that law 
enjoins. 

132. This condition of the human race 
must be the work of time and of patient 
persevering Christian effort. It must es- 
pecially be the work of those who have 
been blessed with perceptions of truth, 
and a religious sense of right in a superior 
degree, and who possess hearts in sympa- 
thy with their fellow-men beyond the ma- 
jority of mankind. 

133. Thus far the inarch of civilization 
has been slow, but there is reason to ex- 



292 SOCIAL DUTIES* 

pect an acceleration in the future stages of 
its progress, being now so wide-spread that 
the causes operating to retard will be more 
and more local and circumscribed in their 
influence 5 so that the period may yet ar- 
rive when very mucti that is now wrong in 
the condition of society will be rectified ; 
when labor in all its forms will be more 
justly and truly honored ; when virtue will 
be loved for its own sake ; and when each 
individual member of society will under- 
stand much more fully than at present his 
social duties, and be far more attentive to 
their faithful performance; when man 
shall cease to look upon his fellow-man 
with less of love than distrust ; and when 
each shall find his greatest happiness in 
contributing to the happiness of all. 

134. The words of the gifted Winthrop, 
penned but a short time before he gave 
his life a sacrifice upon the altar of his 
country, are worthy of remembrance. 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 293 

** When shall we cease our wretched distrust? 

When to each other our true hearts yield 1 
To make this world an Eden we must 

Fling away each weapon and shield, 
And meet each man as a friend and mate, 

Trample and spurn and forget our pride, 
Glad to accept an equal fate. 

Laboring, conquering, side by side." 

135. The free government which our 
fathers gave us, and which, although not 
claimed to be in all respects perfect, is yet 
the best and most beneficent ever estab- 
lished by man, is now assailed by traitors 
whose hands, red with fratricidal blood, 
are endeavoring to destroy it. To maintain 
this glorious government — to preserve it 
with all its manifold blessings to the gen- 
erations that are to come after us, we are 
now, at a cost of hundreds of millions, 
sending our brave and patriotic youth to 
the battle-field. 

136. We can not for a moment doubt 
the result. The Union will be restored. 
The constitution, which is the bond of 
union, will be again recognized and re- 



294 SOCIAL DUTIES. 

spected as the fundamental law of the 
whole land. Our banner — the star-span- 
gled banner — the banner of freedom — will 
again float in triumph and in beauty over 
all the vast domain of the United States. 
This will be the result of the great efforts 
and the great sacrifices we are now making. 
But all this great effort and these great 
sacrifices will be in vain if the national 
mind and the national heart are not ele- 
vated and purified — the one from the gross 
ignorance that still clouds it, and the other 
from the selfishness that defiles, and de- 
bases, and corrupts, and destroys. 

187. Great as is the effort and the sac- 
rifice we are now making to sustain our 
excellent government, we have yet, if suc- 
cessful, to make a still greater effort for 
its preservation. We shall have then to 
battle — not against men armed with all 
the improved implements and methods for 
destroying life in modern warfare — not 
against treason in open and armed hostility 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 295 

to the government, but we shall have to 
contend with the ignorance, the selfish- 
ness, and the savage appetites and passions 
of man. We shall have to contend with 
that host of mailed giants who hold in 
durance the most vile the minds and the 
hearts of men, whose captain and leader 
once confronted with his army of rebels 
the powers of heaven. 

138. Should this great effort not be 
made, or fail of being successful, then the 
history of our nation, like that of the na- 
tions that have preceded it, will contain 
the recor 1 of its decline and dissolution — 
will contain the story of the fall of the 
freest and most beneficent government ever 
established — a government never again to 
exist in equal perfection and grandeur 
until the distant ages have given to the 
world a people who, while they shall bear, 
like us, God's image externally, shall also 
exhibit no less perfectly his glorious image 
internally in their hearts and in their lives. 



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